


Love Live! School Idol Wars Episode I: A New Loaf

by mamamikan



Series: Love Live! School Idol Wars [1]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 36,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27717623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mamamikan/pseuds/mamamikan
Summary: A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away... there was a war over school idols?! Taking inspiration from both Star Wars and the Love Live! series, I am happy to present my multi-work AU project that sees Aqours and μ's take on the roles of the iconic characters from the Star Wars Prequel and Original Trilogies.
Relationships: Kousaka Honoka/Minami Kotori, Nishikino Maki & Yazawa Nico, Sakurauchi Riko/Tsushima Yoshiko
Series: Love Live! School Idol Wars [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2027341
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. CHAPTER 1

**SCHOOL IDOL WARS**

**EPISODE 1: A NEW LOAF**

**IT IS A PERIOD OF CIVIL WAR AND UNREST ACROSS THE GALAXY. THE GALACTIC EMPIRE, RULED BY EMPERESS KUNIKIDA, ENFORCES A STRICT ONE SONG ONE WORLD POLICY ON EVERY STAR SYSTEM. THOSE THAT VIOLATE THESE CONDITIONS ARE CONSIDERED TRAITORS TO THE EMPIRE AND HAVE THEIR PLANET DESTROYED WITH PREJUDICE.**

**TO CIRCUMVENT THIS, A LOVE LIVE! IDOL COMPETITION IS HELD ANNUALLY WHERE THE WINNING PLANET WINS ITS FREEDOM, HOWEVER THE ODDS ARE FAVORABLY STACKED TOWARDS THE EMPIRE, BECAUSE OF THIS NO PLANET HAS EVER WON LOVE LIVE! SINCE ITS INCEPTION.**

**A SMALL GROUP OF REBEL FORCES LED BY DIRECTOR MINAMI AND HANAYO KOIZUMI LOOK TO OVERTHROW THE EMPIRE’S REIGN OF TERROR AND RESTORE MUSIC TO THE GALAXY. NOW A SMALL CRUISER CARRYING PRINCESS MAKI WITH A NEW HOPE FOR PEACE ATTEMPTS TO FLEE FROM A GALACTIC STAR DESTROYER UNDER THE COMMAND OF THE RUTHLESS DARTH YOHANE….**

**CHAPTER 1**

An enormous spacecraft flies through the starry sky powered by massive turbine engines in pursuit of a rather small in comparison winged cruiser. The ship comes under fire and soldiers pour out from the rooms onboard, in one of the hallways two droids, one protocol and one astromech, walk amidst the ever-growing chaos. “Did you hear that?” The larger gold droid asks to her small companion. “They shot down the main reactor, it won’t be much longer until we’re destroyed for good! BUU BUU DESU WA!” The droid crosses its arms together in the shape of an x and the small astromech continues on. “We’re doomed… the princess has gotten herself into one royal mess this time.” A platoon of troops stop outside a single door, the entrance to the vessel and train their love blasters on it.

Tensions run high when the sound of their ship being brought up via tractor beam can be heard, it wouldn’t be long before they were made captives of the empire. Those assumptions were proven right as within seconds the door is blown to pieces and troopers in reflective plated armor step out and start firing out against the soldiers. The fire fight doesn’t last long and it’s made clear very early on that the soldiers are outnumbered and outclassed, a few flee back further into the ship and the two droids hide in an open door, observing the battle from a distance.

“What did I tell you Ruby, you just _had_ to suggest we go in this mission, didn’t you? If we would have stayed back on Susume→Tomorrow I could have taught you all the music you needed to know and… Ruby?” The droid turns its head around, not noticing that the small droid had already departed her for quite some time now. “Ruby! Where have you gone to my dear sister?!” She starts to panic and walks back from the doorway; listening for any sounds or beeps she can pick up on.

A cloaked figure, garbed in a black cape with a rather obnoxiously large helmet in the shape of a demonic imp steps out from the ship’s entrance and examines the battlefield around her, the pathway is littered with bodies of friend and foe alike, but what she needs is not here, they must be hiding it somewhere… She carries onwards and is followed by a dozen or so of the armed troopers.

“Sorezore ga suki na koto de ganbareru nara. Atarashii (basho ga) gooru da ne. Sorezore no suki na koto o shinjite ireba. Tokimeki o (daite) susumeru darou!” A girl under a cloaked hood twirls around the astromech playing an instrumental track, she pumps her hands up in the air in time with it and sings along. “Kowagaru kuse wa sutechae tobikiri no egao de! Tonde tonde takaku bokura wa ima no naka de!” She cheerfully poses, holding her hand against the back of her head then pauses, stopping to catch her breath. “Phew, that was a good workout… Bokura wa Ima no Naka de, not a bad choice little guy.” The girl smiles and pats the top of the droid’s dome. “Pigiiiii!” The droid replies with happy beats and gears the song up to repeat again but is quickly motioned to stop playing it by the girl waving her hands in front of it. “No no no! We don’t want to attract anymore attention to ourselves than necessary, I know now though that it’s safe for me to leave this information to you…” She looks both ways and inserts a disc of sorts into the small droid underneath its eye. “There, make sure you get both that information and my recorded message to Riko Sakurauchi alright? The fate of the rebellion and the entire universe is counting on you, R2K2… get back to your sister, she must be worried.” The girl quickly turns and flees back into the ship, the gold droid from earlier finally catches up to Ruby and scolds her.

“What did I say about running off without me? Did you forget the incident we went through on My Mai☆Tonight? No, I did not think so. Now come look, everyone is fleeing, what exactly are we supposed to do?!” The droid panics once again before Ruby communicates with her about her newfound purpose. “Plans for the Dance Stage? Riko Sakurauchi? Ruby Kurosawa, as your sister Dia I refuse to let you take part in such a nefarious scheme! We may be in the custody of mistress Kotori Minami but that doesn’t mean I have to agree to putting your life in danger, under no circumstances will I… wait, come back here!” Ruby has already made her way down towards the escape pods leaving poor Dia in the dust.

“The Dance Stage plans are not on any of the main computers.” One of the troopers reports to the imposing cloaked figure who is in the middle of choking a soldier. “Would you like to tell me where those plans you transmitted are? Maybe I’ll spare your life and recruit you as one of my little demons if you so choose.” She says in a mocking tone, tightening her chokehold grip even more. “W-We intercepted no transmissions; this ship is on a diplomatic mission I swear!” The soldier grabs tightly onto the cloaked figures hands, gasping for air as his life slowly fades.

“You lie! We followed this ship as it departed our imperial records facility on Hajimari Road hours ago, if this is a diplomatic mission where is your ambassador?! On vacation?!” She tosses the soldier and slams him up against a wall. “Elite demons tear this ship apart until you have found those plans for me! Take any passengers you’ve found; I will torture them myself!” She storms off and the troopers continue to inspect the ship and locate any stragglers.

The hooded girl from earlier pokes her head out from a corner and shakes off her hood, “There’s one, set your love blasters for stun.” Before the trooper can give a command, the girl fires a blast at one of them leaving them incapacitated. She attempts to flee but before she can a stun blast is returned in her direction, knocking her out and sending her sliding across the floor. “She’ll be alright… inform Darth Yohane that we’ve found a potential prisoner, good news for us fellas, we may be spared.” The troopers sigh in relief and hoist the girl up by her arms, walking her back to where Darth Yohane is waiting.

Meanwhile Ruby and Dia reach the escape pods, Ruby moves over to the control panel for the pod and extends a robotic arm out to decode it for them to board. “So we’re going to flee now I suppose, not that I have a problem with that but weren’t you the one eager to help the rebellion?” “Pigi! Pi pi, pigi…” Ruby turns her dome around and retorts to Dia as the door to the escape pod shoots open. “We’re going where now?! I refuse, we must get back to mistress Kotori right now, if you have such critical information on your person, you can just-“ Ruby pulls away from the door and pushes herself into Dia, knocking her into the pod as the door closes and traps the pair inside of it as the pod shoots out from the cruiser and into the deep vastness of space towards the planet Sunny Day Song.

The hooded girl from before, that now has her twin buns and crimson hair on full display, is escorted by a squad of troopers to Darth Yohane to be questioned. “Darth Yohane… only someone like you would be this bold… imi wakannai! What is all this for? The imperial senate won’t be too pleased to hear about this little shooting gallery stunt you pulled here.” Her face scrunches up and Yohane lowers her helmet down to eye level, the height difference between the two girls isn’t that large, but that’s not what Yohane is focusing on. This isn’t her first encounter with Princess Maki Nishikino of Daring!! but now that she’s having a closer look at her, something feels so familiar… too familiar. Those buns much resemble her own hair style she had before she begun her dark path, as well as the color of her hair reminding her of a certain lover of hers, to top it all off she also had a noticeable burn scar that adorned the left side of her face. You don’t get something like that on accident, no she’s had that since birth, it’s the only explanation.

“Don’t be so surprised miss goody two-shoes, you really taught you could just get away with stealing highly classified imperial information under the guise of diplomacy?” Yohane pulls her face away and puts her hands at her hips, knowing the young princess could not possibly have a response. “Several transmissions were beamed to this exact ship by rebel spies, our sources have all but confirmed it!” “What? I don’t understand, I’m a member of the imperial senate you know this! I’m in the middle of a diplomatic mission to-“ “You lie! You and your rebel friends are really good at doing that I’ve found. Since I’m so generous I’ll give you a choice, would you rather my little demons send everyone on this ship to a lifelong torment in hell, or would you like to fess up and tell me where the plans are?!” Yohane hopes that intimidation will be just the tactic she needs to secure the plans, she specially designed this version of her outfit to not only match her league of Stagetroopers, but also appear more menacing since her high pitched voice didn’t do such a great job of that naturally, even with the “pro streamer” voice filter she installed.

“Hmm… I don’t think I have anything to tell you actually, besides your wardrobe is in need of a reality check. Maybe try wearing something from this century if you want to be “hip.” The princess smiles smugly and sticks her tongue out at Yohane, a few of the Stagetroopers next to her can’t help but let out a small giggle. “How dare you?! I could say the same to you miss pizza face, last I checked food is supposed to go into your mouth not onto it.” Yohane lashes back, Princess Maki takes this remark to heart and clutches at her chest. “That was a low blow, even for you… I’ve had this mark since I was born, it’s nothing I can help…” She lifts a hand up and runs over the mark delicately, sighing afterwards. “You have? Then maybe…” Yohane finds herself questioning this girl even more, all of these factors couldn’t have just been a coincidence, and she knows for a fact she heard singing when she boarded this ship, she can sense that Maki is strong with music… could this girl really be her daughter? “My answer still stands, I definitely won’t be giving handouts to a bully like you.” She lifts up her foot to try and step on Yohane’s toes but is quickly restrained by the Stagetroopers on her sides.

“Fine then! You are part of the rebel alliance and a traitor to your own government, get her out of my sight!” Yohane wipes her hand away and turns to leave as the Stagetroopers escort Princess Maki to a holding cell onboard the flagship star destroyer. “Holding her here is dangerous… if the senate finds out we have her, it could generate sympathy for this meager rebellion in the senate and lose us key congressional powers.” Admiral Arvel Ergradon warns Yohane.

“You have no reason to worry my elite demon, I have traced the spies back to her, I am certain of this. Once we gain the information we need we’ll return the girl to Daring!! unharmed. Send a distress signal from this ship and set the timestamp for two days ago, that will buy us plenty of time.” Yohane stops in place as another man steps up to greet her. “Yohane-sama, the battle plans are not on this ship, our searches have all but confirmed this.” Commander Oldrak Ergradon states, “However an escape pod was fired from the ship shortly after we arrived but our scans concluded no lifeforms were aboard it, curious…” “Am I the only competent one on this entire ship?! Clearly that’s where the princess has hidden the plans! I want a squadron of my finest Stagetroopers searching nearby star systems this instant! See to it personally commander, there’ll be no one to stop the great fallen angel Yohane this time!” Yohane hisses and the brother and sister duo quickly rush off after giving each other concerning glances.

“Why are we here, Ruby… just to suffer?” Dia groans as her and Ruby leave footprints and tread marks in the scorching hot desert floor beneath them. “My systems don’t even require fluids to function, but my motors are growing more and more exhausted by the minute… all because you only thought of yourself, Ruby!” “Pigi…” Ruby tries her best to ignore Dia’s constant complaining, but the planet they’ve found themselves on is massive in scale and appears to be only sand dune after sand dune, how were they to find this Riko Sakurauchi like this?

“Where do you think you’re going, Ruby? I may not have been to this planet before, but clearly like all things in life, the _right_ choices always win out in the end, so I will be going right.” Dia confirms this to herself as if it isn’t just her and Ruby out here, but she would prefer not to leave her beloved sister behind if she didn’t have to. Ruby however seems to take no issue with this and heads off in the opposite direction, surprising Dia.

“You’re that dedicated to that mission of yours, are you? That you’d leave your sister D-3KO all on her own on a possibly deserted planet? BUU BUU! I thought better of you, Ruby.” She loudly hmphs to make a point and continues on with her trek, she’ll find help eventually and then come back for Ruby.

After walking for what feels like days, Dia notices a rather large vehicle over the horizon and waves her arms about, frantically trying to draw its attention. “Hey! Over here, please stop, me and my sister are in need of assistance!” Dia mechanically breathes a sense of relief as the vehicle takes notice of her and increases speed, but the closer it gets, the more Dia begins to regret her decision of separating from Ruby. “Pi, pi…” Ruby begins to get frightened by the setting sun and unfamiliar location, her suspicions prove to be right as she is blasted by a bolt from behind which send shocks throughout her entire system. “Pigiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” Ruby cries out for her sister before falling flat on the ground, dinging up her surfaces as two alien creatures approach her, picking her up to carry her onto the same vehicle Dia had found earlier.

Outside of the vehicle, known as a sandcrawler, the alien creatures, known as Jawas, place a restraining bolt onto Ruby to prevent her from escaping. A large vacuum like tub extends from the vehicle and hovers over Ruby, pulling her into the upper portion of the vehicle, after this the sandcrawler begins moving once again in the dark desert sandscape. Ruby awakens and shakes off some metal scrap from her dome and turns her dome around to get a better look at her surroundings, she notices that there are other astromechs like her that have been captured, but also a gonk droid and others unfamiliar to her. She waddles over the floor looking for anything of use and finds Dia sitting alone in a corner.

“R2K2… is that you?” Dia happily stands up and pats her hands all around Ruby’s dome. “Oh it is you! I’m so sorry for leaving you stranded in that awful desert! I would say that we’re at least in a better place now but, I don’t believe that statement would hold much truth, oh dear…” Dia sits back down and tries to figure out a plan of escape, she was less concerned about Ruby’s mission and more concerned about making sure these Jawas didn’t use them as spare parts for trade.

A legion of Stormtroopers touches down on the planet and investigates the pod, noticing the marks left by the two droids darted throughout the sand. “Yohane-sama was right, there was someone inside of that pod! The tracks appear to go off in multiple directions, let’s split up and wrangle these droids, boys.” The Stagetrooper gives a hand gesture and they break off into two formations.


	2. CHAPTER 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> D-3KO and R2K2 come in contact with Honoka Kosaka.

**CHAPTER 2**

Morning has come and the sandcrawler plows through the sandy dunes of Sunny Day Song before slowly grinding to a halt in front of a large assortment of homes, with signs plastered about reading “Kosaka’s Breads and Sweets Shop”. “Do you hear that Ruby? We’re stopping, stay close to me.” Before Ruby could get moving though, a blunted pole is pushed up against her as she’s quickly forced down onto the lower levels and out the opening of the large vehicle along with several other astromechs of various sizes.

“Ruby! I’m coming down don’t worry!” Dia quickly stumbles around and manages to catch up with Ruby next to the metallic ramp of the sandcrawler. “Pi pi pi?” Ruby beeps as she rocks in place. “I’m afraid I can’t say, Jawas can be very unpredictable, it’s best if we don’t cause too much trouble for now. You’ve certainly done plenty of that already dear sister.” Dia scoffs before lightly whacking the back of Ruby’s dome.

Before the two have time to argue about any longer, a lone figure makes its way outside of one of the houses, heading towards the Jawas standing outside the sandcrawler. Without speaking a word, the figure, now clearly a middle-aged man, starts making hand gestures to the Jawas, who look at each other with puzzled looks across their beady eyed faces. “I know over 10,000 different languages, but yet I have no idea what this man is trying to say.” Dia says as her head slowly tilts over to the side.

As the Jawas prepare to call this auction a bust, yet another figure darts through the sandscape but at a much faster speed. “Hey, sorry about that! My dad isn’t much of a talker.” The girl throws her arms over her back, scratching her head as she lets out a slightly apologetic sigh. “We’re looking for a translator droid, can any of these droids do that job?” After hearing this, Dia eagerly speaks up. “Ah, yes mistress! While I’m a protocol droid primarily, I am fluent in languages used the galaxy over, I am more than up to the task.”

The girl jumps up in place after hearing Dia’s own self-assertion “That’s great! Ah, one last thing though, can you speak in bread loaf too?” Her eyes light up in anticipation, eager to hear the droid’s response. “Well I… erm, in all my years of service I have yet to find a language that’s impossible for me to learn, so with a bit of time I should be able to translate this bread loaf just the same.” She raises her mechanical hand up slowly, scratching over the small bolt poking out from her cheek. As soon as those words leave Dia’s mouth, the girl motions to her dad with the same weird hand gesture, and after seeing the gesture he walks forward towards the Jawas with cash in hand.

While Dia and the girl start to get acquainted, an astromech joins the two on their walk back towards the homes. “Oh, hey little guy, did dad want you to come with us too? He has been complaining about all the dead silence in our shop, this should fix that problem!” She leans forward to pat the droid on the hand, but before she can do so it begins frizzing about, sparks and compartments flying open from top to bottom. “What the heck, hey dad, this music machine isn’t any good! Something tells me our customers wouldn’t be into this sorta jam.”

The dad flings his arms up in the air, making movements that could be seen as threatening regardless of if you could speak bread loaf. “If I may mistress, why not take that pink R2K2 unit instead? She’s very reliable and I would trust her with my life.” Dia says as she rests a hand on the girls shoulder and points to Ruby with the other. “Hey dad, why not snag that pink one instead? The translator droid is speaking really highly of her.”

With that Ruby speedily moves towards Dia and the girl, it seems that at last they were safe once again. “R2K2 you said? Well I’m Honoka Kosaka, it’s a pleasure to meet you! Oh and you would be?” Honoka says as her dad finishes up the transaction with the Jawas before turning to make his way back over to the group. “Forgive me mistress Honoka, I am D-3KO, or Dia for short. I must thank you for taking us out of the harm of those dreaded Jawas, staying with them would have been a big BUU BUU on Ruby and I.”

“A buu what now…?” Before Honoka can question the droid on her odd choice of words, her dad motions to her yet again with his wild gestures. “But dad, I was on my way to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters with my friends, that isn’t fair!” Dia shot quick glances back and forth between the two, in the end it was clear Honoka was not going to get her way. “Oh alright then, come on you two…” A defeated Honoka slowly walked over to one of the homes in the back of the property with the droids following closely behind her.

“This feels so niceeeeee.” A relaxed Dia murmurs out while she’s pelted by a barrage of steam, scrubbing away all the dirt and sand she had gathered up while walking through the sands of Sunny Day Song. “I didn’t realize how filthy both of you were, you guys see a lot of action?” Honoka says before getting back to work picking at Ruby’s exterior. “Oh we do more than just see the action, we’re _in_ the action. But alas, that’s the life of the rebellion I suppose.” The moment Honoka hears the word “rebellion” she whips her head around to look directly at Dia.

“No way! You mean the rebellion?! But I thought you were just a translator droid and a music machine!” Honoka can’t contain her excitement and starts poking around all over Ruby, listening intently to Dia’s words. “I’ll tell you one thing, it’s not a life of luxury and I would trade just about anything to not be a part of it.” Dia leaves the makeshift droid bath and stumbles over to Honoka. “I guess that makes us polar opposites of each other, what I wouldn’t give to do anything but make bread and sweets just for-“ A beam of blue light projecting out of Ruby cuts her off as a hologram forms taking the shape of Princess Maki.

“Help me Riko Sakurauchi, you’re my only hope. Help me Riko Sakurauchi, you’re my only hope.” The words of the princess play on repeat as Honoka kneels down to look closer at the projection. “Riko Sakurauchi… who is that, and who is this girl? Hey Ruby, what’s the meaning of all this!” “Come now dear sister, the mistress asked you a question, you can at least answer back.” Dia once again gives a quick whack to the back of Ruby’s dome, “Piiiiigiiiiii!” After a few short beeps, Ruby maneuvers herself over to the bath Dia had previously been using.

“She says that she’s the property of Riko Sakurauchi, and this message is intended to be delivered to her… BUU BUU DESU WA! Just who gave you permission to carry around secretive information, Ruby?!” The tall droid angrily strikes its arms together in an X before chasing the small droid across the room. “Riko Sakurauchi, huh… I wonder if she is talking about old Lily Sakurauchi? The names are sorta similar I guess-. Well I’ll have to think on that later, dinner time!” Honoka completely ignores the spatting droids and heads towards the family dining room, her stomach parched from all the excitement the afternoon has brought.

“Hey mom, dad, something tells me that the droids we got from the Jawas mayyyyy just be stolen?” Honoka says as she takes her seat at the dinner table. “Oh, what makes you say that dear?” Her mom asks back, setting a plate full of various types of breads down in front of her. “While I was cleaning off R2K2 she played a message from some woman asking Riko Sakurauchi for help? You don’t think she means old Riko Sakurauchi over by the dune seas, do you?” Honoka’s dad and mom exchange worried glances before digging into their meal. “Maybe it’d be best if you had the droids’ minds erased? You could head into town first thing in the morning and leave this whole message thing at that.” Honoka’s mom gives a weak smile then returns to eating.

“Aww, but mom… what if this message is important? I mean clearly it’s meant for someone, I could just take the day off tomorrow and head over to see Lily! If the droid really does belong to her, I’ll make up the money it cost for whenever I join the flight academy with Kotori and-“ A large slam lifts the plates off the table for a brief second, sending a ripple straight through Honoka. It only takes her a few seconds of looking at her dad to realize that once again, she would not be able to join her friends in the skies like she had wanted, not that this surprised her as she’s been groomed to take up the family sweet business from essentially birth, as far as she knew anyway. “Yeah okay dad… heaven forbid I do something new with my life for a change, but I’ll be going nowhere at this rate.” Honoka stands up from the table and brushes past her dad, leaving the dining room to head around to the back of the property.

“Honey, you know we can’t keep her here forever. All her friends are long gone and a couple of droids and her parents aren’t exactly going to fill that void. She has so much of her mother in her, doesn’t she?” Honoka’s dad glances over towards her empty chair, a mix of emotions overwhelming him after hearing his wife’s statement. “I wish we could all be a family here for as long as possible just as much as you do, but that isn’t fair to Honoka, sweets and bread making aren’t in her nature.”

The binary suns peek out from above the sand covered horizon, the sky becoming tinted with a mixture of the blue and red colors casted by the suns as a pair of eyes longingly gazes out at them; Honoka hasn’t been on this earth for long, but she knew that something in her life needed to change, could these droids be the hope that could satisfy her longing for adventure?


	3. CHAPTER 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honoka rescues R2K2 and is saved herself by Riko "Lily" Sakurauchi, who informs her she's part of a larger legacy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Giant line of asterisks indicates the beginning of a flashback scene.

**CHAPTER 3**

Honoka returns to her room and gets ready to turn in for the night, but before she can rest she notices Dia hiding behind her bed. “Erm, is everything okay over there?” Honoka ponders as Dia comes out of hiding, clearly distraught. “That foolish droid, I told her not to get us in trouble with our new mistress already and she just took off! Repeating how important this stupid mission of hers is, I’m deeply sorry for the inconvenience mistress Honoka!” Honoka freaks out upon hearing the droid has fled and quickly runs out into the front of the property.

“She really had to choose _now_ to run away. It just got dark and the Jawas are gonna be out along with some other unwanted company… did you guys not get freaked out from your first experience on Sunny Day Song?” Honoka holds up a pair of space binoculars to here eyes and tries to scan around for any signatures as Dia walks up to her to try and offer any assistance. “I certainly had my fair share of adventure mistress, oh sweet maker, please keep my little Ruby safe…” “Sorry to say D-3KO but it’ll have to wait until morning, I can’t see her anywhere and it’s just too dangerous to search now.” Honoka stuffs the binoculars in a shoulder bag she’s carrying and accompanies Dia back into the house.

Bright and early Honoka decides to go looking for the droid, she knows her dad and he won’t be too pleased if their newly bought music machine isn’t there to operate once the store opens. Her intuition turns out to be correct as her dad motions to her mom about Honoka’s whereabouts. “She said that she was getting a head start on picking up the ingredients today, not something I typically expect of Honoka but maybe our conversation last night gave her some inspiration, honey.” She cheerly smiles and the dad folds his arms around his chest, nodding in agreement.

In reality Honoka is in her landspeeder zooming across the desert once again with Dia in tow, she didn’t have much time to waste finding this troublesome droid. “The scanner is picking up a droid signal, that could be Ruby! Hurry Dia, speed this puppy up!” Honoka stands up a little and points her arm out in the direction of the signal, Dia does her best to comply. “Remind me why the translator droid is the one driving again?” “Oh that’s easy, I don’t have my license yet! This is my dad’s company speeder but it’ll get the job done!” Honoka cheerfully replies and returns to her seat. “And you run a bread and sweets shop, correct? On a desert planet…?” “Hey don’t be too judgmental Dia, desert planet is right. Being stuck on a planet full of sand really limits your food options, we’re an essential service!”

Honoka wasn’t the biggest fan of spending her entire life making breads of different shapes and sizes, and stretching out long gooey candy, but she certainly _loved_ eating it and took pride in her family’s legacy, not that she was expecting a droid that can’t eat to understand the deliciousness and fulfilment that comes with stuffing your face full of fluffy starch. “This should be good Dia, slow the speeder down here!” After they come to a stop, Honoka hops out over the side and looks around. The scanner was right and Ruby is in the middle of wobbling her way across the scorching landscape before Dia and Honoka stop her in her tracks.

“Did you really think running away was your best option, dear sister?! You’re lucky that our mistress doesn’t recycle you for spare parts and rip the jukebox clean out of you.” Dia whacks her head on Ruby’s dome yet again eliciting a few sorrowful beeps. Dia hated to be aggressive towards Ruby, but with all the trouble she’s gotten into something had to be done. “Wait guys, do you hear that?!” Honoka quickly grabs a long piece of what seems like Italian bread from her speeder and finds cover by a nearby rock formation with Dia and Ruby following behind her.

“I knew there was trouble out here… those are tusken raiders, and it looks like they were attracted by our speeder.” Honoka pulls her space binoculars out once again and zooms in towards the canyon, where oddly shaped creatures are walking next to humanoid shapes pulling them along with a long metal rope. “Yeah I think it’s time we got back home-“ Honoka lowers her binoculars and is met by a tusken raider right in her face, it raises a metal stick over its head and begins chanting. “N-No I don’t want to buy any of your sand goods, I’m fine with my bread!” Honoka quickly pulls out the Italian bread from earlier from her bag and smacks it against the tusken raider’s leg to little effect. “Ehehe… if you let us go I can give you a 10% coupon to Kosaka’s Breads and Sweet’s Shop, how does that sound?” The creature growls and whacks Honoka over the head with his metal stick, knocking her out cold as the two droids flee to find cover.

A handful of tusken raiders drop Honoka’s body off in front of her landspeeder as well as a dismantled Dia, they look around for the last remaining droid who happens to be behind a crumbling rock formation. “Pigi…” The droid quietly beeps to itself as the tusken raiders catch notice of her and move closer in, however they’re caught off guard by someone shouting in the distance. “Kurae! Riko-chan laser… beammmmmmmmmm!” A blinding pink light engulfs the sky and strikes one of the tusken raiders, killing it instantly. The other few begin to panic and run off in terror, forgetting the droids and girl they left behind entirely. After the beam dissipates, the hooded figure in a brown robe walks over to where Honoka is laying and checks her pulse, Ruby assuming the cost is clear slowly comes out of hiding.

“Hello there! Would this young girl happen to be your mistress?” The figure pulls down her hood and smiles at the droid who beeps in acknowledgement. “That was quite the predicament you guys found yourselves in… you’re lucky I just so happened to be around.” Honoka comes to once more and shakes her head shrugging off any dirt and sand that could have gotten on her, she squints her eyes and gasps once she realizes who her savior is. “Lily?! Old lady Lily is that really you?!” “Who’s calling who old?! I’ll have you know I’m only- _sigh_ tell me young Honoka, why are you out here all on your own… mind the droids of course.” She walks Honoka over to a pile of rocks and takes a seat next to her. “I’m out here looking for someone called Riko Sakurauchi? You wouldn’t happen to know who that is, would you?” Honoka looks up at the woman, hoping to get some answers.

“Why of course I know her, she’s me.” Riko points to herself and smiles. “Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in quite some time…” Riko is taken a bit aback and looks over at the droid, now that she can get a better look at it, this droid looks extremely familiar to her. Almost identical to one her and Yohane brought with them on their adventures during the Idol Wars. “I haven’t gone by the name Riko since before you were born.” Riko smiles and reminisces to herself, Honoka is ecstatic to finally be making some progress in this mysterious quest of hers. “Yatta! So this droid does belong to you then?” She spins around and rubs over Ruby’s dome.

“Oh erm, I don’t seem to remember owning a droid, sorry…” Riko feigns ignorance, not sure if she’s ready to bring Honoka into her world just yet, especially not out here. “I think we should get going, if you would like to have a discussion, you’re more than welcome to join me at my home.” “Sounds like a plan!” Honoka quickly grabs her Italian bread that she lost track of and tosses it in her speeder. “Pigiiiii, pigi pigi pigiiii!” Ruby desperately tries to indicate to Honoka that they forgot Dia. “D-3KO!, I almost forgot, now where did she end up at…” Honoka takes a look around and finds Dia’s dislocated arm which eventually leads her to Dia herself, “Where am I… mistress Honoka, I don’t believe I am in one piece. Go on without me, there’s no reason you should risk your life for a droid.” Dia sighs and attempts to reattach her arm, “Aww don’t talk like that Dia, everything is fine now! Old Lily here just saved our bacon, but if we don’t leave now there’s gonna be trouble… so let’s get moving.” Honoka nods to Riko and they both hoist Dia up by her waist and onto the landspeeder, Riko takes over driving duties and eventually leads the group to her humble abode on top of an out of sight mountain.

Honoka is busy at work repairing Dia and having a long-awaited conversation with Riko who’s busy folding away her cloak and searching for something in the distance. “There’s no way, my mom was a simple waitress at a local café, but you’re trying to tell me she fought in the Idol Wars? I think you need to get out more, Lily.” “No, that’s just what your “dad” told you, he didn’t agree with your mother’s actions and has tried to keep your family lineage a secret…” Riko finds what she was looking for, a metallic silver box, and walks back over to the couch they are sitting on.

“A lineage of bread makers maybe, I don’t think that’s anything worth keeping secret-“ Honoka tightens a bolt in Dia’s elbow and she regains movement of her arm yet again, Honoka in the same moment starts to put two and two together. “Hang on now… the only way you would know that is, did you fight in the Idol Wars?!” Honoka is astonished, she can tell her friends she knows a famous person now, sweet! Though maybe bragging about knowing an old hermit isn’t something she should take too much pride in, Riko laughs. “That I did, I used to be a Jedi knight too, just like your mother. She was the best starpilot in the galaxy, second to none I’d say.” “That’s impossible, my mom can’t even drive a speeder properly, my dad is the one that has to do all our pickups…” Honoka sighs and returns to working on Dia.

Riko is growing ever more frustrated, she knew that she wanted to keep Honoka’s identity a secret for her sake, but how much longer would she have to live the lie that _bread makers_ of all people were Honoka’s parents, perhaps was the time to finally let the truth come out.

“Ah, that reminds me, I have something here for you.” Riko delicately opens the metal box and pulls a stick out of it. “Your mother wanted you to have this when you were of age and were ready to begin your training, you would have had it much sooner if I had any say in the matter…” Riko scoffs at while holding onto the stick shaped object tightly. “If you won’t be needing me mistress, I’ll switch to low power mode so I can finish my internal repairs.” Dia tells Honoka before the light in her eyes slowly fade out. “Yeah sure, droids look so creepy when they’re deactivated.” Honoka pushes her face up to Dia’s and blinks a couple of times, seeing nothing but circuitry and wiring in her head.

“That looks shiny, what is it Lily?” “This… this is your mother’s glowstick.” Riko rubs her hands over the top of it and places it in Honoka’s hands, placing her on hand on top of hers. She might not be able to reveal her relationship with the girl yet, but she had waited so long for this moment, she was going to savor it. That glowstick once belonged to someone she loved more than anything, now it was time for her daughter to inherit it.

“That is the weapon of a Jedi knight, not clumsy like a love blaster, no… it’s an elegant weapon, for a more civilized age.” Riko takes a seat and watches on as Honoka activates the weapon and a faint grey colored blade shoots out of it, Honoka is amused by the weapon and twirls it around in her wrist. “Wow sugoiiiii! It looks like it’s made out of pure light, I wonder how it would feel if I touched it…” “Honoka no!” Riko quickly leaps forward and pulls the weapon from her hand and deactivates it. “How did you do that?!” Honoka looks down at her hands where the glowstick used to be, then back at Riko, then back at her hands.

“O-Oh that? Erm it was nothing, I just grabbed the glowstick by the strap on the bottom that’s all.” Riko scurries about and returns the glowstick to the box it once resided in. “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi knights served as the keepers of peace and prosperity in the universe… before the dark times, before the rise of the Empire…”

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25 years prior to the events beginning to unfold, battles were raged between the Jedi Knights of the Galactic Republic, and the droid troops of the Mari Ohara Trade Federation. Two of the most well-trained Jedi Knights at the time were Riko Sakurauchi and her padawan, Yohane Tsushima. After the loss of Riko’s master, she took in Yohane who was not much younger than her, to complete her training with music and eventually become a Jedi Master. Members of the Jedi council, a committee that oversaw all the operations of the Jedi order included Rin Hoshizora and Kanan Matsuura, some of the strongest idols to master the music in all of history. Outside of the Jedi, the Galactic Republic was maintained by the Supreme Chancellor at the time, Hanamaru Kunikida, and a well liked former queen turned senator from the planet Never Giving Up!, Chika Takami. Riko’s discussion with Honoka led her to do some internal soul searching about some of her memories she shared with Yohane, one that came clear to her mind right now was of one of their battles at the beginning of the Idol Wars she had mentioned.

The Jedi were trapped in a massive arena on the planet Believe Again, the forces of Mari Ohara’s Trade Federation had them surrounded on all sides by armed battle droids who took the shape of various musical instruments including a rather skinny violin and a brawny bass, these droids however were anything but fragile. Mari Ohara was one of the richest women in the galaxy, her father and mother before her had stock in companies that spanned the galaxy, and they viewed the Jedi order as a threat to their operations, it fell to Mari to create an army (or pay for one to be constructed) that would erase the pests permanently and ensure that no one threatened their bank accounts every again. To this end, Mari allied her trading federation with the likes of the Sith, the ancient enemy of the Jedi who they long did battle with for hundreds of thousands of years, on this occasion Sarah Kazuno was contracted to capture the Jedi Riko Sakurauchi and bait the order into coming to save her, the plan was successful and even though Riko had been freed, everything was going accordingly.

“It’s so good to see all of you could make it, I’ve been working on this little number for years and I was so terribly worried no one would ever be around to listen to it.” Sarah mischievously grinned and motioned over to Mari to crank up a nearby stereo machine. “OK Sarah, let’s go go go!” The girl cheered her arms up in the air enthusiastically and sprawled herself out on a luxurious chair she had brought out just to give her a front row seat to the inevitable destruction that was about to unfold. “Geez, when Yohane said freeing you would be a piece of cake, I thought she meant saving you would be as easy as grabbing a slice of cake from Hanamaru’s stash of junk food… this doesn’t look that simple, Riko.” Chika groaned and gripped her love blaster tightly as the droids enclosed on the small circle of Jedi. “It wasn’t my idea to call for backup, my young padawan you still have much to learn.” Riko swings her glowstick around in anticipation for a fight and scans the battlefield.

“Well if _someone_ hadn’t insisted on fighting Sarah alone, we wouldn’t be in this situation, now would we?” Yohane had little time to argue as the droids all lifted their arms up in unison, prepared to fire. “Ahem… this is a little number I would like to dedicate to my younger sister who regretfully is unable to join us today, no matter, Saint Snow always dazzles, even when we’re solo.” Sarah flings off her cape from her shoulders and tightly grips the mic stand in front of her and begins to sing the second the stereo speakers boom to life behind her.

“Hajimare! Kono basho kara subete ga! Hajimare! Kono basho kara hajimare Wao!!” Sarah rocks her hips and a magical energy cascades through the microphone and down onto the arena, swirling around the droids on the field and energizing them with a musical energy they wouldn’t normally be able to obtain. Sarah’s continue as the battle droids spring to life and start blasting upon the small group of alarmed Jedi, seeing this as a rush to battle they activate their glowsticks and charge forward, meeting the droids and slicing off their parts with various slices and usage of music based techniques. Yohane teams up with Chika who is lacking any music talents of her own and can only destroy whichever droids she’s able to fire at with her love blaster.

“You make it look so easy! Why don’t you let me try borrowing a glowstick? Then I’ll be able to destroy as many droids as you and Riko can, maybe even up to 98!” Chika fires at an incoming droid through the chest and it implodes, drawing Riko’s attention back to her misfit group. “98? That’s an oddly specific number. Eep!” Riko is quickly caught off guard by a missile that is fired her way that she barely manages to deflect at the last second with her glowstick. “Grrr…” An intimidating figure in an interestingly marked suit of armor walks forward towards Riko, Yohane, and Chika who prepare themselves to fight, but Kanan leaps in front of them and activates her green glowstick.

“Can we try staying focused please? You can question each other’s crazy way of thinking after this battle is over.” Kanan runs forward in a flash and engages with the mysterious figure. “Wow she’s so cool, is this really what being a Jedi Master is like?!” Chika is enthralled by Kanan’s elegance and Riko agrees with her statement. “They don’t call her the Dolphin of Uranohoshi for nothing, she moves with such grace and precision! Maybe one day with some training we can be as good as her, Yohane.” “Yeah yeah that’s great, I’m a bit more worried about how we’re going to make it out of this situation.” Yohane’s anxiety starts to peak as she huddles backwards towards Chika and Riko as the Jedi forces start to dwindle.

“We love music itsumo itsumo! We love music odoritagaru! We love music hoka ni wa nai! We love music jounetsu wa music!” Sarah’s strength with the song continues to grow and the droids continue the offensive, spelling what is surely a defeat for the Jedi. However just as the battle seems hopeless, a volley of lasers rain down from the sky and destroy a significant portion of the droid army. “What the hell is that?! Sarah, this is not okay we’re supposed to be winning!” Mari stands up in her chair and uses a stack of cash to cover her eyes, allowing her to get a look at the new threat before them. “Make a perimeter around the surviving Jedi, nyaaaaa~” A cheerful voice calls out, “Understood mam!” another voice replies back and a dozen or so ships lower down to drop off a group of idols onto the battlefield, these idols are packing specially designed love blasters that are just as powerful as droid weaponry but without the necessity of being charged by the power of music.

“We’re saved, haha!” Chika waves her arms up and down at one of the ships as the odds have once again changed in their favor. “Master Rin, she picked one heck of a time to show up.” Yohane pushes forward a slew of music notes that destroy a handful of approaching droids and smirks, she wouldn’t be dying today it seemed. 

“Hajimare! Kono basho kara subete ga kagayaite! Hajimare! Kono basho kara hajimare Ah! Nando demo!” Sarah continues singing as much as her vocal cords can handle but she can clearly see that the tide of the battle is starting to shift. “Sorry Mari, it looks like I’ll have to make a tactical retreat for the moment…” Sarah retrieves her cape and reattaches it around her neck before passing by Mari. “Awww, leaving already, Sarah? I want to see more of those sweet and _sexy_ moves.” She reaches her arm out and spanks Sarah’s rear, causing her to jump up in surprise. “T-Those moves are for professional use only, anything else would cost… extra.” She fake coughs a couple of times to try and distract from her ever glowing face and it seems to do the trick with Mari losing interest. “You’re no fun, ciao for now, Sarah! Say hi to your sister for me.” Mari returns to the comfort of her chair and flips a pair of shades down over her eyes, she wasn’t worried for her own safety as the Jedi wouldn’t dare touch her even if they were defeated, she had diplomatic immunity after all.

“Guys look up there, Sarah is getting away!” Chika quickly fires a few shots at the upper hallway attempting to hit her, but the blaster fire doesn’t even manage to get halfway there before it’s intercepted by a battle droid. “Ahaha… it was worth a shot, right?” Chika rubs the back of her head but Riko isn’t impressed, “The idols have everything covered here, we need to catch up to Sarah, she’s our target.” Riko waves over to Chika and Yohane to follow her lead. “Over here you should come, nyaaaaaa~” Rin hops up and down on one of the Republic’s new ships and Chika, Riko, and Yohane oblige, boarding the ship as it flies out from the arena and takes off in the direction of Sarah, who is now riding her own snow crystal shaped speeder. “There she is, we should be able to catch up with her in no time, see I told you, I had this covered from the beginning.” Riko confidently states and holds her hand up to her face flicking her fingers forward, mimicking Yohane’s own datenshi pose. “Mou, who said you could use that! Just because you’re my Elite Little Demon Lily, you don’t get a free pass to just copy everything I do!” Yohane pouts and throws her hands down at her side, slowly feeling a blush grow on her face.

“Apologies Yohane, but I just couldn’t resist, if anything your adorable reaction to me doing it is to blame.” Riko snorts and continues her playful teasing, most of which is lost on Chika. “I still don’t get what it means to be a little demon, do you guys have wings and a tail that you’re hiding or something- Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Chika cries out and stumbles back out of the ship, falling down into the sand beneath them and landing on an idol that was shot out along with her. “Chika-chan?!” Riko runs to where she was standing and looks out from the ship at a dazed Chika who just barely manages to lift her hand up to give a thumbs up.

“We have to turn this ship around, right now! Chika isn’t trained like we are, she could be in danger!” Yohane debates to Rin and Riko, neither of which seem to be in agreement with her. “Chika-chan is plenty capable… right now we need to focus on doing _our_ job and catch Sarah.” Riko grips Yohane’s face and looks deep into her eyes, trying to reassure her this is the right call.

“Waste a single moment, we cannot. Strike while we can, Riko and Yohane should.” Rin nods, and points out to Sarah who’s floating below them on her speeder. “Tsk… if you say so, Lily.” Yohane gets in position along with Riko, and after waiting for the perfect moment, the two jump out from the ship and slam into the back of Sarah, catching her off guard and sending the three girls spiraling into a nearby droid facility. The speeder slams into a wall and instantly catches fire, throwing the trio tumbling and slipping throughout the floor of the large factory. “Ow ow… why don’t our uniforms protect our knees better?” Yohane is the first to stumble up from the ground and dusts off her kneecaps, helping Riko get to her feet as well. “Y-You, you imbeciles! Was your goal to get all three of us killed?!” Sarah shouts out as she struggles to regain balance, she grabs onto her forehead in pain as her shredded cape flies in the breeze. “Oh please, the only one that would have been killed in such a small explosion would have been you, Count.” Riko retorts back and activates her glowstick along with Yohane.

“Using your swords? Here I thought we could settle this matter as ladies, alas I’m not surprised at the devilish tactics you Jedi come up with… thankfully I have a few of my own.” Sarah smiles and raises her hand up, within a few seconds a small gathering of snowflakes form around her fingertips, and eventually they grow even larger into several icicle shards that are sent beaming forwards at an incredible speed and slice into both Riko and Yohane causing them severe pain.

“Icicles?! Really?! You’re taking the name Saint Snow a little too seriously!” Riko yells out in pain and is stuck in place, her body is being pelted by an onslaught of frozen spears and she can barely move, Yohane however is brute forcing her way through the attack. “I-I expected better of you, Lily! I’m taking her now, with or without my little demon’s assistance!” “No Yohane, wait!” Her warning comes to late as Yohane dashes forward, lifting her glowstick above her head for a diagonal strikes but this is exactly what Sarah had wanted, she stops the barrage of ice shards and instead activates her beaming red glowstick, slicing it down directly into Yohane’s glowstick holding arm, cutting it clean off. “Yohane?!” Riko cries out to her but Yohane is too stunned to think straight, Sarah takes advantage of this even further and uses a storm of music notes to slam Yohane back into Riko forcing both of them to collide into the wall behind them, knocking them out cold.

“I’ve been so looking forward to this… once the Jedi order is extinct, Sarah and I will have no competition between us and dominating Love Live!” Sarah raises her glowstick above her head, intending to finish the two off for good, but another figure enters the abandoned facility and draws away Sarah’s attention.


	4. CHAPTER 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Riko finishes reliving her past experiences, Darth Yohane and Grand Moff Umi begin making their move with the Dance Stage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Giant line of asterisks indicates the end of a flashback scene.

**CHAPTER 4**

A small, cloaked cat hybrid of sorts slowly limps towards Sarah, who has to attempt to hold back her laughter. “Master _Rin_ , I wasn’t expecting your company, if I knew an elderly cat would be joining us I would have made this fight last a couple hours longer.” “Respect your elders, you should. Nine lives this cat has.” Rin protests, she may not be as young as she once was, but she’s certainly not what you would call old for a member of her species. “I’ve learned far more about music and what makes a good idol by working with the Mari Ohara Trade Federation, would you like to see some new tricks?” Sarah holds her hand out once more and fires the same array of icicle shards that brought down Riko and Yohane, unlike before however Rin is able to stop the projectiles in midair and redirects them back towards Sarah as it slices through her cape, tattering it even further.

“It could use a bit of work, nyaaaa~” The cat cheerfully spouts as Sarah’s foul mood returns, “So be it, it’s clear that our knowledge of the music won’t be enough to determine a winner, we must instead display our glowstick skills.” Sarah activates her glowstick once more and Rin grabs hers from her waist and ignites it, a pure yellow beam almost as tall as she is illuminates the side of her face. Sarah makes the first move and surges towards Rin, swinging her blade down and striking the floor, Rin leaps about three times her height and strikes at Sarah’s head who narrowly blocks the blow with her glowstick.

“Yatto ne ki ga tsuita mitai? Anata no naka no kienai hikari.” Sarah starts to sing the song she had worked on with her sister specifically to sing together on this planet, unfortunately Leah had other matters to attend to and couldn’t join her for this occasion, Sarah assured her she would be fine on her own, but she expected to only be fighting one Jedi, maybe two, not one of the strongest Jedi master’s the galaxy has ever seen. “Chiisa na shigunaru Rin rin ring a bell! Kikoetara unazuite ohenji kudasai!” Rin begins her own cheerful singing, and a rush of music notes pushes Sarah back, gliding across the floor. It was foolish of her to expect their fight to be a cakewalk because of her success with Riko and Yohane.

“Yoyuu ga nai kokoro ja yume wa toozakaru no kamo.” Sarah stays on the offensive and rotates her glowstick with precision, blocking any incoming swings from Rin whether it be above her or below her, the two trade blows throughout their own personal area and the combat slowly turns into a dance between two expert swordsmen. “Chotto dake (chotto dake) kodou ga (hayai no) Tokimeki nande? Nande?” Rin’s playfulness in combat was both a testament to her keen focus but also was used as an intimidation tactic, and it was starting to do its job on Sarah’s psyche.

“Motto…Motto… Let's dance, dance, tomaranai yo Dance!!” Sarah buckles her knees and gets down lower to the ground, swiping across the floor but missing Rin yet again; maybe choosing to have a sword fight with a cat this flexible was a bad idea. “Chiisa na shigunaru Rin rin ring a bell! Kikoenai furishite mo nari tsudzukemashita!” Rin keeps on the pressure and swipes her glowstick across Sarah’s ankles, causing her to scream out in pain.

“Believe again… believe… again!” Sarah fights on to her last breathe, but she looks over to the side and notices Riko starting to regain consciousness, she wasn’t the type to resort to using cheap moves to win a battle, but if the Jedi were to be defeated sacrifices on her honor would have to be made. Sarah deactivates her glowstick and focuses in on a large metal structure above Riko and Yohane; she channels a circle of music notes that swarm around it and begin pulling it away from the wall.

“N-Nya?!” Rin realizes what’s happening and turns her attention to the structure, giving Sarah the opening she needs to escape. “Saint Snow’s final act is just around the corner, I hope you’ll enjoy the show!” Sarah retreats back to her speeder and hastily repairs it with her ice crystals allowing her to flee the battlefield. “No way! I’m not gonna miss my shot a second time!” Riko stops outside the entrance to the factory and fires at Sarah who ducks under her speeder to evade the fire from Chika and some accompanying idols. “I’m gonna count that as a hit! Riko-chan, Yohane-chan! Are you two okay?!” Chika loudly shouts into the factory as the pair stumble outside with Riko giving Yohane some support.

“Master Rin, I sincerely apologize… if we had waited for backup- If I had waited for backup, we would have captured Sarah and learned what the Sith are planning, please forgive me.” Riko bows her head at the figure low to the ground but Rin shakes her head. “Not to worry, Riko. Another chance we will soon have, nyaaaa~” Rin holds up her paws and smiles as Yohane opens her eyes again. “Lily… what happened? Did we get Sarah?!” Yohane asks, trying to get an understanding of the situation. “Erm, not exactly… we should focus on fixing your arm first, okay?” Riko nods her head towards Yohane’s sorely lacking forearm and she loudly screams in her ears. “Where is my handdddddddddddddd?!”

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“So if my mother isn’t really my mother… where is she? Did she die?” Honoka frowns and looks Riko dead in the eyes, this pulls Riko back into the conversation and out of her memories that she wishes she didn’t just relive. “Your mother…” Riko would rather forget about the unfortunate distance that came between her and her former lover/apprentice Yohane, it would already be hard enough explaining to Honoka where she had been all her life, she would hate to also tell her that her mother was in fact the second in command of the Empire that’s terrorizing the galaxy, talk about an icebreaker. “A young Sith named Darth Yohane, a former pupil of mine, went rogue and betrayed the Jedi, and assisted the Empire in murdering the entirety of the Jedi order… She murdered your mother.” “That got dark fast… I wasn’t expecting on finding out my mother was actually a Jedi knight and a pilot and deceased, boy I should have just stayed in the shop.” Honoka shakes her head in disbelief, Riko takes this as a sign to shift the conversation elsewhere.

“Right, you asked me how I was able to grab that glowstick away from you earlier, correct? It was thanks to the power of music.” “Music? You mean the kind I listen to in music machines?” Honoka asks as Riko stands up and laughs once again, “No, that autotuned corporate noise isn’t what real music is, music is… what gives a Jedi all their power, and not just a Jedi, idols too. School idols, solo idols, anyone that is inspired to sing and give joy to others draws on the music around them, it’s an energy of musical rhythms and beats that affects all living things.” Riko smiles and gives Honoka a pat on her head ruffling her hair a bit before returning her attention to Ruby. “Now let’s see about that message you had for me; it was from a princess you said?” Riko bends over and presses a button on Ruby that causes the holographic image to appear once more.

“General Sakurauchi, years ago you served my father in the Idol Wars, now he begs for your assistance in our struggle against the Empire. I regret to say that I’ve been captured by Darth Yohane and am being held hostage… I’ve delivered information vital to the survival of the rebellion on this R2K2 unit and she has been instructed to deliver it to you and my father on Darring!!. You must see this droid safely returned there, the fate of the entire galaxy is at stake, help me Riko Sakurauchi, you’re my only hope…” The message cuts off there and Ruby deactivates the hologram, Riko leans back in the couch pondering the task that’s been laid out in front of her.

“If you wish to come along to Darring!!, you must learn the ways of the music young Honoka.” Riko smiles and leans in closer to Honoka, who doesn’t appear as eager as Riko is to leave this planet surprisingly enough. “Go to Darring!! with you? I don’t know, that doesn’t sound cheap… plus this is the Fall, we have so many holidays coming up our shop is gonna be in a lot of demand for once! I’m sorry but I don’t think I can come with you.” Honoka sighs, somewhat lying and somewhat telling the truth, she flings her bag over her shoulder and prepares to leave the hermit to herself. “Listen Honoka, she really needs our help, and I’m starting to get too old for this sort of thing…” Riko looks back at Honoka, showing some desperation on her own face now.

“Caring so much about sales, that’s just your “dad” talking, I know you’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this.” Riko tries her best to convince Honoka to change her mind. “You really saved my neck back there, I guess I can at least take you over to the spaceport so you can get a ride, would that be alright?” Honoka gives a half-baked smile and Riko nods, grabbing her cloak once again and exiting her home along with Ruby and Dia who has reactivated after finishing maintenance.

On board the Dance Stage, a meeting to discuss what to do with their royal captive is being held between many officers, admirals, and captains. Including one prominent figure that is notorious among the entire empire and multiple star systems, Grand Moff Umi Sonoda. “Until the Dance Stage is operational, our station here is too vulnerable to rebel alliance attack, I suggest we use Princess Maki as bait to force the rebel’s hands.” Admiral Arvel suggests, but Oldrak interrupts with a different idea.

“Maybe our Starfleet is too vulnerable, but not the might of this stage. If we resort to using a hostage it’ll be a sign of weakness and just end up strengthening their cause.” “They will just continue to gain control in the imperial senate, we can’t play by their rules any-“ Arvel is cutoff once again but by a different voice this time, when she recognizes the voice she immediately quiets herself and the imposing figure pulls back an elaborate chair from the meeting room table and takes a seat, Darth Yohane stands positioned behind her. “The imperial senate will no longer be of concern to us for much longer, I’ve just received word that the empress herself has moved to dissolve the council immediately. Thus, the last remaining remnants of the old republic will be no more…” Umi rubs her fingers together as if replicating the squishing of an annoying feeble insect.

“That’s impossible! How does the empress intend to maintain control over all the star systems without a bureaucracy in place?!” Oldrak asks with great concern, sharing in his sister’s worries. “The regional governors now hold direct control over any territory they hold, the need for a senate of sorts has long since passed. Fear of opposing our mighty empire will keep the systems in line.” Umi turns her head towards Oldrak and furrows her brow, giving Oldrak an example of how poignant of an emotion fear is. “If the rebels have obtained the plans for the Dance Stage, that puts us on the defensive, wouldn’t you say?” Arvel continues to push the questioning even further, but Umi is ready for it with all the responses she needs.

“We’ll regain those plans soon enough I assure you, and Admiral Arvel…? Is that a bit of chub I see on your face, my I can tell you’ve put on a few pounds since I last saw you, disgusting. I want you running 10 laps around the maintenance bay in full Stagetrooper armor. Now.” Umi turns her face away and swats her hand at Arvel like she was a fly insulting her with her presence. “If you’re going to be part of my board of trustees, the least you can do is properly diet.” “Y-Yes mam, apologies mam!” Arvel stands from her chair at once and bows before taking off towards the maintenance bay, this turn of events causes Oldrak to stop with the questions. “This stage will be the ultimate power in the universe, once we’re able to control every Love Live! competition held here, there will never again be a planet that questions the might of the empress and empire.” “Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve created, I’ve held streams using equipment better than anything on this stage!” Yohane finally speaks up to remind everyone she’s there.

“The music is where true power comes from, I fell from grace because my singing was too much for even the most attuned angels in heaven to handle, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to my mastery of music. Kukuku~” Yohane holds her hands up to her helmet and flashes three of her fingers, loudly chortling to herself. “Don’t try to frighten us with your black magic, Yohane-sama. Only teenagers and simpletons who lack understanding believe in anything like that. Your devotion to that religion of yours hasn’t returned the stolen plans to us, or locate the rebel base. My sister may act as your pawn, but I-” Oldrak can feel a tightening around his neck as he flails about as a fish out of water, desperately trying to free himself from Yohane’s tightening grip.

“What was that? You mean the religion that’s currently strangling you to death?” Yohane closes her fist even tighter as Oldrak’s eyes roll into the back of his skull, Umi has seen enough. “He gets the point Yohane-sama, now release him!” “Whatever…” Yohane drops her hand and turns her back on Oldrak who drops down to the table, gasping for any air that he can gather. “This bickering among us will get us nowhere, Yohane-sama has assured me that she _will_ obtain the location of the rebel base, afterwards we will crush this rebellion with one swift stroke.” Umi looks forward, determined as ever to prove herself to the empress. It had been 10 years ago almost to the day that she was approached by Kunikida to helm this construction effort, Umi had come from a long line of military generals who greatly assisted the Mari Ohara Trade Federation during the time of the Idol Wars; after the Federation collapsed with the fall of the old republic, Kunikida came to Umi’s family specifically to enlist their talents and skills to not only secure funding for her new weapon and stage, but to provide a leader for her grand army.

Umi Sonoda was only 8 years old at the time but she showed exceptional promise in her few years of existence and was taken in by the empire to begin her training, her results over the past decade did not disappoint and all her achievements so far had led her to this moment. She would not disappoint the empire that gave her this position, she would bring honor not only to her family name, but to the empress that made all of this possible in the first place. 

“It looks like the tusken raiders did this all right… look at this metal stick, I’m pretty sure this is the one they bonked me over the head with-“ Honoka picks it up and tosses it over to Riko who catches it and examines it. “This scene looks entirely… staged, look here Honoka. Do you see these tracks? They aren’t made by Banthas that tusken raiders usually ride on, no… these are tracks by imperial Stagetroopers.” “But… these are the same Jawas that sold us D-3KO and R2K2, are you positive, Riko?!” Honoka starts panicking and looks closer at the destroyed sandcrawler. “I’m certain of it… the blast marks over this vehicle are far too precise to be from tusken raiders.” Riko runs her hands over one of the burn marks and Honoka voices her concern about what this could imply.

“If they traced the droids to these Jawas, that would have led them back… home!” Honoka tries to contain her tears and dashes off to her landspeeder, not hesitating to speed all the way back to the shop even if she didn’t know how to drive exactly. “No wait Honoka, it’s too dangerous for you to go alone! Take this at least!” Riko pulls out the glowstick she had shown her earlier, but it’s too late, Honoka had sped off in the direction of the tracks stranding Riko with the two droids.

Honoka slows the speeder down and hops over the side of the vehicle, greeted by a cloud of dark black smoke pouring out from the shop. “Oh no… please let it be burnt bread, please let it be burnt bread!” Honoka’s attempts at holding her tears back start to fail as she runs towards the entrance of the shop. “Mom!? Dad!?...” Honoka stops in disbelief as she sees two charred corpses littering the sand, their skeletons completely visible, this was a savagery Honoka thought she would never see in her life.

“T-This, this can’t be real…” Honoka’s tears drop to her feet and she lashes her head to the side, trying to avoid the gruesome sight, but an overwhelming anger and hatred builds up inside her, no… the bastards that did this to her family would pay. They always obeyed the overreaching rules of the empire and paid their dues, her mom and dad may have been limiting on her freedoms, but it was all to keep her safe. Honoka pulls her head up and gives the scene one final look, a fire lighting in her irises.

A door to a cell on the Dance Stage shoots open, inside it contains Princess Maki who’s huddled up in the corner hugging her knees, after seeing Darth Yohane and a pair of Stagetroopers into the room she immediately changes stances and tries her best to look intimidating. “What, are you back to mock me even more? Feel free to, I’ve had time to come up with more than enough insults for you bucket head.” “Now that’s just rude! This helmet is specially designed by me and my publicity team, if you have a problem with it take it up with them!” Yohane tries to let the insult fly past her and focus on the task at hand. “Erm… would you like anything while you’re in here? We’ve actually got some Kunikida tea on board and if you haven’t tried it before, it’s honestly really really…” “You think I’d drink that sewage water? I’d sooner drink a glass of orange juice.” Maki scoffs and looks away in frustration.

“Hey, does that mean you hate mikans too?! Look at that, we already have something in common!” Yohane nods happily to herself and Maki gives a shocked reaction, “S-So what, I’m sure we’re not the only two women in the galaxy that don’t like mikans… why are you trying to be nice to me anyway?” She looks down at the ground and returns to hugging her knees, she didn’t like anyone seeing her in a position of weakness, but she had no idea where that droid was or if anyone would be coming to save her, no need to put her guard up against her captive in this situation. “Listen… we only need you to give us the location of the rebel base and then I’ll let you go, doesn’t that sound easy?” “Oh yeah, and I’m sure you’re just going to come over for a visit and leave us in peace, my bullshit detector is going off the charts.” Maki sticks her tongue out at Yohane once again and she loses her patience. “That’s it missy! I didn’t want to resort to this, but bring in the probing droid!”

A small black sphere enters the cell and extends out a needle, slowly floating towards Maki. “No not needles, I hate needles! Anything but that…” Maki cowers in fear and looks over at Yohane who’s starting to feel a bit of regret. “Why do teenagers have to be so difficult, aye…” Yohane shakes her head and the door closes behind them.

The landspeeder returns to the earlier scene and Honoka can barely manage to drag herself out of it, Riko can already sense the turmoil going on inside of her and also begins to feel some regret, she should have been there for her daughter sooner; maybe all of this chaos could have been avoided then. “There’s nothing you could have done if you had been there… at least, you’re safe.” Riko trembles a little but reaches her hand out, bringing Honoka in closer to her for a warm embrace. “I want to come with you to Darring!!... there’s nothing for me here now, Kotori is gone… my parents are gone, I want to learn more about the music, about the Jedi… and my mother.” Honoka looks up at Riko with tears still fresh in her eyes. “I can do that.” Riko smiles and rubs Honoka’s back, the pair meet up with the droids and pile into the landspeeder, their intergalactic adventure was just getting started.


	5. CHAPTER 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honoka and the group arrive at Mos Eisley where she discovers a singer by the name of Grondorn Muse, who shows her a different side of music.

**CHAPTER 5**

“This is great and all but… how exactly are we supposed to get from Sunny Day Song to Daring!!? My weekly allowance was sorta small and my landspeeder can hardly get off the ground.” Honoka tilts her head to the side after pondering for a bit. “Oh don’t worry, I know how to take care of that.” Riko smiles and time passes to show the group arriving in the landspeeder at a local spaceport on the planet. “Mos Eisley, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We have to be cautious.” Riko lets out a sigh and shakes her head, but before she has time to get into the details about what makes this place so horrible, the group is stopped by patrolling Stagetroopers.

“How long have you had these droids?” The patrol leader asks, signified by a marked shoulder guard on his right shoulder. “Hmm, for about a day or two, not that lo-“ Honoka is quickly quieted when Riko frantically covers her mouth with her hand. “Don’t mind her, they’re up for sale if you’d like them!” Riko tries laughing the situation off, not amusing any of the Stagetroopers.

“Yeahhhh, we’re gonna need to see some identification.” The leader tightens his grip on his blaster, stepping closer to the landspeeder with his other patrolmen following suit. “You don’t need to see her identification.” Riko calmly states as she waves her hand out in front of her. “We don’t need to see her identification.” The leader repeats word for word, drawing questionable looks from his compatriots.

“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” Riko states, once again the Stagetrooper repeats her words and steps away from the landspeeder motioning for the other troopers to do the same. “She can go about her business, move along.” Riko leans back into the speeder with a smugly confident aura emanating around her while the Stagetroopers wave them off.

“Woah, what was that Riko?!” Honoka gazes in amazement as Riko flips her hair over her shoulder. “Ha, that was nothing. Even in my old age I’ve still got it.” They park the landspeeder outside of a gaudy cantina and all hop out, except for Dia who is busy trying to detach Ruby from the speeder. “If you want a real answer, I used the power of music back there. It works wonders on those who don’t have it all together, if you know what I mean.”

Riko looks around a bit before lowering her hood, “If we’re going to find a pilot anywhere on this rock, it’s gonna be here. The company here isn’t as friendly as I am though, fair warning.” “Hey, I’m ready for anything, I’m gonna be a Jedi just like you, y’know!” Honoka confidently puffs out her chest and follows Riko’s lead into the cantina.

Once they enter, Honoka is immediately taken aback by the odd patrons of the cantina, characters of varying shapes and sizes are seated at the booths; including one that almost looks like a humanoid walrus, she hopes that it’s a man in a costume. Before Honoka can even approach the bar counter, a loud booming voice halts her advance. “Hey lady, we don’t server their kind here!” the man says pointing directly to Dia and Ruby. “Huh, you don’t? I mean, I don’t think droids can really drink anyway, but what’s wrong with having a music machine in a cantina?” Honoka brings her hand up to her chin, wondering how if her shop fails to attract any customers without music that a lively bar like _this_ could somehow manage it.

“We’ve got that covered, don’t worry.” the man moves his finger over towards a corner in the back of the cantina. “I see… they can wait outside, no problem!” Honoka shoots the man a quick thumbs up then walks back up the steps to Dia and Ruby. “Sorry guys… but if we want to keep things quiet you should probably wait outside for a while until we’ve found our pilot.” Honoka pouts before patting Dia on the shoulder. “I 100% agree mistress, Ruby and I won’t cause you any trouble.” Dia and Ruby quickly make their exit so Honoka and Riko can continue into the cantina.

“Erm, Riko? Did you hear what that bartender said? Do you think that could mean…” Honoka desperately looks up at Riko with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. “I dunno Honoka… I certainly wouldn’t bet on finding a music user in a place like this, but I’ll look around for our pilot while you do what you’d like.” She smiles and parts with Honoka, who rushes off to the location the bartender pointed to. Her jogging pace only becomes faster once music starts passing into her ears, before long she’s stopped in front of a modest looking stage, full of instrument players and a lone man standing in front gripping onto his microphone.

“SUNNY DAY SONG, SUNNY DAY SONG takaku tobi agare! Donna koto mo norikoe rareru ki ga suru yo! SUNNY DAY SONG SUNNY DAY SONG kuchi zusamu toki wa. Ashita e no kitai ga fukurande ii kimochi!” After the man finishes the verse, he’s met with applause throughout the cantina and by one overly excited Honoka who instantly hops up to the stage after the man begins winding down. “Hey that was amazing, how long have you been singing Sunny Day Song?!” Honoka can barely control herself and the man can tell how enthusiastic she is by the tone of her voice.

“Haha, I’d probably say for about 5 years at this point? The song just never gets old to me kid.” He wipes his hands on his pants and extends his hand out to greet Honoka. “I’m Honoka Kosaka, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” She happily accepts his invitation and shakes his hand eagerly. “That would make me Grondorn Muse, a devoted singer and musician. Now what would your profession happen to be, Honoka?” The pair walk over to the edge of the stage before promptly sitting down, their legs dangling over the edge. “That’s a question I’d like to know the answer to myself… I always thought I’d be tied down to our family sweet and bread business but uh, let’s just say that isn’t looking likely at this point ehehe-“ She sheepishly rubs the back of her head and looks over to where Riko is, who’s in the middle of talking to a man and what appears to be a large dog of sorts. “Nothing wrong with that kiddo, it took me a while too before I knew this is what I wanted to do. I just couldn’t let the Empire keep me from singing how I wanted to anymore.” He leans back, practically enough to lay on the floor of the stage. “You know singing isn’t something that’s allowed, right? Only idols are able to sing… and even then we’re limited to whatever song our planet is connected to, we have those music machines but come on, it just isn’t the same!” Honoka blurts out, drawing the eyes of a few patrons before she lowers her tone back to a reasonable level.

“I get what you mean, and while I’m not an idol myself, anyone can embrace the music don’t you think? I don’t claim to be an expert singer or dancer, but that really shouldn’t be what matters.” Grondorn gets up to his feet and heads back over to the mic, “Nothing should ever stop you from achieving your dreams, whether it be your parents, or the Empire, just be you.” He tosses the mic over in Honoka’s direction which catches her off guard, she scrambles about and manages to catch it, a wide grin forming on her face. “Come on kid, let me see what you got.” The patrons of the cantina once again turn their heads back to the stage, the band readying up their instruments to play again.

“You mean it sir?! You really really mean it?!” Honoka can barely contain her happiness as she dashes over to the mic stand, eagerly sliding it back into place. “Of course I do, I don’t joke around when it comes to what people are passionate about. Do your thing.” He gives her a nod of encouragement and steps over to the side. Honoka takes several deep breaths, she knew Sunny Day Song perfectly just like everyone on the planet did, but she never had the temptation to really _sing_ it out loud, let alone in front of a large crowd like this.

Outside the cantina, Dia and Ruby lean up against the side of the building, talking about whatever droids usually talk about, out of the corner of Dia’s metallic eye she spots something deeply concerning. “Ruby! Do you see those Stagetroopers over there? Letting them follow us back to the cantina would be a big BUU BUU, we need to hide right now!” After Ruby gives a concerned “Pigi!” the pair of droids turn to walk towards the back of the cantina, but the action was a tad too late and the Stagetroopers begin their approach.

If Honoka was really to become an idol, a Jedi, this was something she had to do. After realizing the significance of this opportunity, her confidence swelled up inside her as she pushed her lips next to the mic, “SUNNY DAY LIFE SUNNY DAY LIFE, kagayaki ni narou. Nante ieru ima no kibun o wakeaeba. SUNNY DAY LIFE SUNNY DAY LIFE kimi mo odori dasu… Ahhhhhhh!” As Honoka sings, a swirl of music notes builds up around her, before eventually flowing out from the stage, surrounding the booths and the patrons. “You’ve gotta be kidding me…” Grondorn shakes his head and watches on, he had heard about idols and the music that flows from them, but never once did he think he’d live to seen it in person, on Sunny Day Song of all places. But this made him smile, it brought him hope if there were girls like Honoka that still saw the value music brought to the galaxy.

Amidst the admiration however, a large slamming is heard from the entrance of the cantina as two Stagetroopers storm down the steps towards the stage, taking sight directly at Honoka. “I knew something was off about those girls with the droids, blast em!” The troopers take hold of their love blasters and fire at Honoka and the other members of the band. She quickly falls to the ground, cowering in place hoping that the blast would at least be quick to take her out of this world, except… nothing happened, at least that was what she thought until she opened her eyes.

“S-Sir?!” An audible gasp escapes her lips while the gravely injured Grondorn falls back into her arms. “D-Don’t worry about me kid, I didn’t take this shot for you for nothing.” A few words manage to escape in between his coughs, his hands slowly moving to cover the rather large hole that now brandished his chest. “That small verse was all I needed to hear, you have a gift Honoka, use it well okay?”

Not a moment later his spirit passes on, leaving Honoka in tears as she grips him by the shoulders. “N-No… not again, why do I keep hurting people?” Unbeknownst to her, the Stagetroopers prepare for another blast but before they can act, a loud swoosh is heard, seconds later the leader’s arm drops the floor dripping in blood. “Ahhhhhh!” The man screams out in pain as he too drops down to the ground next to his arm, before the second Stagetrooper is able to get a shot off he’s sent spiraling back into the wall by a large flurry of music notes that knock him out cold. “Hmph…” Riko deactivates her sakura pink kingblade and returns it to her robe with the rest of the patrons going back to business as normal as if nothing had happened. “Honoka!” Riko sprints towards the stage along with the large dog from earlier, Honoka still in the process of wiping away her tears. “I-I’m okay don’t worry, but Grondorn he’s…” The anguish Riko sees on Honoka’s face tells her enough, and she gently rubs up and down the girl’s back.

“I heard your singing from over by the bar, it was fantastic Honoka. I think your friend Grondorn here knew that too when he gave you that chance to sing, losing so many people you know in such a short amount of time is hard, trust me I know…” Riko bites her lip and looks inside of her robe, staring closely at her kingblade. “Y-You’re right, we’re here on a mission… it wouldn’t do us any good if I give up now.” Her voice steadily strengthens as the other band members that managed to escape the lasers approach Honoka, taking away Grondorn’s body and bowing before exiting the cantina through the back door.

“Exactly, and I have good news about that mission too. Shiitake here is co-pilot on a ship that might be just what we need.” Riko and Honoka follow Shiitake towards a booth on the opposite end of the cantina, and after a few minutes pass a rather small silhouette joins them at the round table. “Nico Yazawa, captain of the Millennium Heart at your service!” the girl cheerfully says, putting her hands into a somewhat adorable pose with a matching smile. “Shiitake here says you’re looking for passage to Daring!! is that right?” “Yes, that’s right, if it’s a fast ship that is.” Hearing this causes Nico’s brows to furrow and lean closer into the table.

“Fast ship? Ha! Have you never heard of the Millennium Heart before? It’s the ship that made the Anata no Heart run in less than 12 parsecs!” “Wow, that sounds really impressive miss! Erm, Riko, how long is a parsec?” Honoka turns her head to look at Riko, only to find her clinging onto her arm with her entire body quivering. “Yeah yeah that’s great and all, can I ask you to put that dog of yours on a leash maybe?”

“Huh, that’s new for you Riko, I didn’t think you were scared of anything.” She blinks a few times before looking back at the large creature. “Hey! Shiitake here isn’t a dog FYI, she’s from a sorta endangered species known as Woofies, and she’s been by my side for the better half of a decade so no can do, old lady.” “Woof woof!” Shiitake barks out and wags her tail underneath the seat, after seeing that nothing could be done about their situation, Riko does her best to regain her composure and focus on the task at hand. She had a fear of dogs since birth, but she had overcome it thanks to the help of, someone… but that was a long time ago, and overtime that fear came back to her.

“I guess I don’t really have a choice if you two are flying together, huh? Well we need safe passage for me, this girl, two droids… and no questions asked. Let’s just say we want to avoid any possible imperial entanglements if you get my drift.” Riko bites her lip and leans in forward to match Nico’s gaze. “Ohhh, so you’re in need of _that_ kind of help, I’m impressed old lady. I didn’t peg you as the type to attract a lot of attention.” Seemingly satisfied, Nico stretches back into the seat comfortably before thinking to herself for a bit, “Alright, 10,000 loveca and you’ve got yourself a ship. All in advance by the way, Nico isn’t the type to play around!”

Honoka and Riko are taken aback a bit by this, Honoka who had been only somewhat listening to the conversation was intently focused after hearing 10,000 loveca. “No way, are you trying to rob us blind! For that many loveca we can practically buy ourselves a ship, this is not fair Riko, we can find someone better!” “Ha, and who’s gonna fly that ship, kid? You?” Nico is once again pulled away from the comfort of the seat as she stares Honoka in the eyes this time.

“You bet I could! I haven’t gotten into the flight academy yet, but I know a thing or two, certainly enough to justify not giving you any loveca!” Riko lightly nudge Honoka over and once again acts as the voice of reason, “We can pay you 2,000 loveca now, and then 15,000 more once we reach Daring!!, does that sound good to you?” “1-17,000?! Are you insane, that’s practically double the amount I was asking for, why would you- Ahem, I mean, that sounds wonderful, you’ve got yourselves a ship, Nico!” Nico once again makes that same hand gesture, but this time the smile on her face seems less heartwarming and more greedier. “We’ll be ready to takeoff when you are, just meet up with us at Docking Bay 98.”

“98, you got it.” Riko says as her and Honoka stand up to leave the table. “And uh, you may want to make it quick, it looks like that little show you put on earlier drew in some attention.” Nico nods up indicating the presence of more Stagetroopers investigating around the bar. “Rightttt, we’ll be back shortly.” Riko and Honoka quickly speedwalk towards the cantina exit to grab the droids and make a quick exchange, “We’re gonna have to sell that landspeeder of yours, you know that right?” “Yeah I know… I don’t think I’ll be getting much milage out of it now anyway.” Honoka sulks along secretly hoping she’ll be able to trade that landspeeder in for a proper ship later down the line.

“Did you hear what they said Shiitake?! 17,000 loveca! Oh this is just perfect, with that much cash I’ll be able to get A-Rise off my tail and then some. Go get the ship ready would yah?” Nico begins dancing around in place, when the dancing suddenly comes to a stop after feeling the end of a love blaster placed against her back. *IN QUECHUA* “Going somewhere, Yazawa?” Not wanting to take any chances, Nico carefully raises her arms up and returns to her seat, she wouldn’t mistake that voice for anyone else other than Anju Yuki.

“Actually I was, Anju. I just finished negotiating a deal with an old timer that’ll give me all the money I need to pay off your boss, I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear that won’t she?” “It’s too late for that now, you should have paid up when you had the chance.” Anju keeps her love blaster trained on Nico, not hesitating for a second. “Tsubasa has a bounty on your head so high, every bounty hunter the galaxy over will be coming after you. Lucky for me, I got to you first, Yazawa.”

“Well yeah but… this time I’ll have the money, my live shows haven’t been _as_ profitable lately, but who cares! I’m still the best idol _and_ pilot in the galaxy for a reason, and it’s not because of the lessons A-Rise gave me that’s for sure.” Nico could tell Anju was getting more frustrated by the minute, so she slowly reached down towards her waist with one hand, Anju being completely oblivious. “Tsubasa is tired of waiting, she doesn’t have time for wannabe idols who fail to sell any tickets and waste thousands of loveca on idol merchandise!”

“Hey, even Nico gets bored of admiring herself all the time, there are some other decent idols out there… just not any as good as me.” A smirk slowly grows on her face, and Anju was having none of that “Maybe Tsubasa will just take your ship and call it at that, if you’re lucky.” The sly remark did as intended, wiping away that smirk almost instantly. “Over my dead body, Nico…” “That’s the idea. I’ve been waiting for this.” Before Anju even has time to register what’s happening, Nico unlatches her holster and aims her love blaster square at her. “Yes, I bet you have. There’s plenty of Nico to go around~” All it takes is one shot for Anju to fall face flat on the table, smoke steaming from her corpse.

“Huh… well that takes care of that, better get back to my ship. Sorry about the mess, if I had the time I’d find someone to clean it up for you!” Nico holsters her weapon and flips a single loveca over to the bartender who just stands there in shock, she then strides over to Docking Bay 98 to reunite with Shiitake and hopefully gain a respectable profit for once.

We once again transition back to the Dance Stage where Darth Yohane is throwing what could only be compared to a tantrum. “I just don’t get it! What is with these bratty teenagers these days, we already ran through the probe droid procedure twice, I promised her we could give her a full course meal with free back massages and she still won’t speak a word to me!” She bangs her hands against the sides of her helmet and ponders about the room, if this girl really was her daughter then she had a few lessons to learn about respect for your elders.

In the middle of her fit of rage, Admiral Arvel walks in with a status update. “Our weapon checks have been completed and all systems are operational, what’s our next step Grand Moff Umi?” Umi paces around the table, this would be the perfect opportunity to test out this weapon they’ve spent over a decade developing, it’s as much her pride and joy as Yohane-sama’s and even the empress herself. “Perhaps we should try some tough love instead as an alternate form of persuasion?” “Eh, what do you mean by that?” Yohane questions Umi who raises her hand and clenches it into a fist. “I think it’s time we truly demonstrated the power of this stage and earn its place as a symbol of fear throughout the galaxy. Set your course for Daring!!.”

Back on Sunny Day Song, Honoka and Riko finish trading off the landspeeder and meet up with the pair of droids that were left outside of the cantina, “Aww, look at this Riko. This is barely enough for a roll or two in School Idol Festival! Ever since the XP-38 came out they just aren’t in demand anymore.” “It’s alright Honoka, it’ll be enough for now.” Riko picks up the pace and pulls her hood back up, taking careful watch to make sure they are not being tailed as they make their way to Docking Bay 98.

“If her ship is as fast as she’s boasting it is, we should get there in no time at all. The Princess won’t be waiting for too terribly long, I hope she’s holding out…” Riko waves over at Shiitake who opens up the door to let the group through to where the Millennium Heart is resting. An alien figure that was following closely behind the group stops outside of said door however, and communicates through a device to alert the empire of their location.

As Honoka and the others walk up to the ship, various thoughts run through their heads and circuit boards, Dia is the first to speak. “It’s certainly…” “Pig…” “What a piece of junk!” Honoka says outright, staring at the appropriately named heart shaped ship. “We’re really spending 17,000 loveca to fly around in this thing? You can’t be serious, Nico!” “She’ll make .5 past light speed, she may not look it kid but she’s got it where it counts!” Nico pats along the ramp of the ship, smiling to herself as she looks at it. “I’ve made several special modifications to it myself, not only am I great at singing and dancing, but I know my way around a ship too!”

Nico walks forward and despite their height differences, she pushes Honoka and Riko on board. “We are in a bit of a rush though so let’s hurry this up, okay? That goes for you two droids also.” She waves over at Dia and Ruby who make their way onto the ship as well, “Hello miss, thank you for the assistance.” Dia politely bows before her and Ruby join everyone else onboard.

The alien from outside rendezvous with a platoon of Stagetroopers and notifies them of the group’s location, “Alright men, get those weapons hot we don’t know what to expect in here.” The lead Stagetroopers blasts down the door and a handful of troops pour inside taking aim at the Millennium Heart. “There they are, blast ‘em and stop that ship!” Blaster shots are rapidly fired at the hull of the ship and Nico yells out in terror before firing off a few shots of her own that connect and incapacitate two of the Stagetroopers.

“Shiitake! Get us the hell out of here!” Nico flees down the ship’s corridors and races towards the cockpit, Honoka and Riko on the other hand scramble to buckle into their seats with the droids seated next to them. “Oh dear, I’m reminded of how much I hate space travel, ngh… it’s a good thing I lack internal organs.” Dia lifts her hands forward to cover her mouth out of habit as the Millennium Heart roars to life, circling around the spaceport before launching out into space proper.

The group isn’t able to get comfortable just yet, a few lasers go flying past the sides of the ship which grab Nico’s attention, “Aww man, _two_ Star Destroyer’s? I knew Nico was popular, but this is a bit of overkill don’t you think?” “Woof woof!” Shiitake doesn’t seem to appreciate the sarcastic comment and joins Nico in preparing the ship to head into lightspeed. Honoka and Riko walk into the cockpit to get a better idea of the situation they are in.

“Hey why don’t you just outrun them; you said this ship was fast didn’t you?” “Come on, I said this ship was fast I didn’t say the pilot was stupid enough to try and outrun a Star Destroyer, Nico!” She shakes her head at Honoka and continues with the procedure. “We’ll be safe enough once we make the jump to hyperspace, here’s where the fun begins!” Nico flies to ship about, narrowly avoiding the barrage of laser blasts being fired at them from seemingly every angle.

“How much longer until you can make the jump? We aren’t exactly in the best position out here!” Riko clammers as she starts to regret her decision, “Just a few more moments old lady, we’re getting the coordinates now from the onboard navigation system.” Nico is slowly losing confidence as the ship starts taking fire, with flashing lights going off indicating the shields are damaged. “Are you kidding? At the rate they’re gaining we won’t be here in a few moments! Maybe we would have been better off with me piloting our own ship after all…” 

Honoka usually isn’t the sassy type but the stress of the situation is getting to her and she can’t really control what words come out of her mouth. “Listen here kid, this isn’t like baking a loaf of bread, if we get one thing wrong we can end up colliding with a supernova or flying through a star, and not the kind of star Nico is!” Shiitake growls as yet another shield is lost, causing Nico to push Honoka and Riko out of the cockpit.

“Go strap yourselves in, we’re making that jump to lightspeed now not later! I hope this is what you guys wanted.” Nico gives a nod to Shiitake as she pulls back on the control stick, sending the ship spiraling through a blue wormhole while space itself bends around them.


	6. CHAPTER 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Princess Maki loses something dear to her, Honoka and company finally arrive at the Dance Stage.

**CHAPTER 6**

“We’ve entered the Daring!! system.” Admiral Oldrak informs Grand Moff Umi who gives a nod of acknowledgement as she looks over to Princess Maki who has been escorted to the room by Stagetroopers and Darth Yohane. “Governor Umi what a nonsurprise, I knew I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.” Maki attempts to flip her hair smugly, but given that it’s currently in the shape of two side buns this attempt doesn’t work that well. “Charming to the last, aren’t we? You know, it pained me to give the order for your execution… but only for about five seconds, I got over it relatively quickly.” Umi walks forward holding her arms wide out, taking pleasure in the announcement she’s about to make.

“Before that execution however, I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will officially mark this battle stage as operational. No star system after this will dare to oppose the empress and the strength of the empire.” “The more you clamp down on the freedoms of those star systems, the more they’ll join our cause to get rid of your empire for good.” Maki maintains her composure, even as a prisoner she still knows the power she holds, at least that’s what she thinks.

“That won’t be the case after this demonstration, I can assure you of that Princess Maki. In a way, uncooperating with Yohane-sama and our probing efforts made choosing a target _so_ much easier. I would assume this planet looks familiar to you, your highness?” “No… you can’t! Daring!! is a peaceful planet with no weapons, it has no role in this-“ Maki desperately pleads out to Umi, but those pleads go mostly ignored by the military leader dead set on making a statement to this so called rebellion. “You’ll provide us with another target then?! A military target of actual value? Then stop stalling and name the system!”

Umi throws down her fist, not out of anger as she rarely lets anything get through to her, let alone a spoiled princess, but this rebellion is the one thing threatening her rise to power and good graces with the empress, if they could crush any resistance now it would be greatly beneficial in the long run. Maki on the other hand has spent her whole life, that she knows of, on Daring!!. Her family, her friends, her home is there; and while the rebellion is a cause she cares greatly about, she doesn’t know if she can trade an entire planet for her.

“Start:Dash!!… they’re on Start:Dash!! alright?” Maki looks down at the ground, she’s really not looking forward to the consequences that will follow ratting out the rebel base. “See that Yohane-sama, she is capable of speaking up when you apply just the right amount of pressure.” Umi gives a devilish smile as she looks over to Darth Yohane, for the longest time Yohane had received all the empress’s praises, but that was going to change after this. “Continue with the operation, you may fire on _my_ command and my command only.” “W-What?! No!” Maki tries her hardest to break free from Yohane’s grasp, every part of her wants to tear Umi apart limb for limb. “Oh I’m sorry, were you under the impression that I would actually spare your home world after all the trouble you and your friends have caused? You are far too trusting and naïve Princess Maki, Start:Dash!! is too meager of a planet to achieve what I’m looking for but rest assured, the rebellion will be delt with soon enough.”

Elsewhere in the station, the stage operators engage the weapons primary ignition as rumbling is felt across every part of the massive stage. Almost as if it was on cue, Umi walks to the center of the viewing platform and pulls her arms back, prepared to fire her invisible bow and arrow. “Love arrow… shootototototototo!” The second Umi releases said invisible bow, the energy gathering around the stage spotlights is concentrated into a single point, which then unleashes a catastrophic amount of energy towards Daring!!, decimating it almost instantaneously. All Maki can do is drop to her knees and sob, as Grand Moff Umi confidently admires her work.

Meanwhile on the Millennium Heart, Riko comes close to falling to her knees too as she grips onto a part of the ship for support, seeing this causes Honoka to be a little concerned. “Riko? Hey what’s wrong, you look like someone just ran up and punched you in the gut.” “It’s fine, I’m alright, it’s just… I felt a great disturbance in the music, almost like millions of voices were crying out in pain all at once, and then violently silenced. Things are getting bad, Honoka…” She brings her hand up to her forehead, scrunching her face together.

“You say you’re fine but you certainly don’t look it, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about! Maybe all those voices were just crying out for a pizza because they were hungry, I know that’s happened to me before.” Riko can’t help but sigh at Honoka’s foolish thinking, if only it was that simple. “You better continue with those exercises, we don’t have time to waste.” Nico walks back in to join the crew, dancing in place once again. “Guess who managed to shake off all those imperial fighters? The great Nico Yazawa that’s who!” She gives it a few seconds before scanning around the ship, Riko is focused on Honoka’s kingblade training and the droids are busy playing with Shiitake. “There’s a considerable lack of praising going on here from you guys, I’ll allow it for now I guess. Hmph!” Nico crosses her legs and sulks back into her seat.

Across from Nico, Shiitake, Dia, and Ruby are in the middle of a game of Holo School Idol Festival; Shiitake and Ruby are currently competing to see who can get the highest score on Aozora Jumping Heart on Master difficulty. “Hajimatta toki no (Sunshine Story) tokimeki zutto daiji ni ne! Yume o tsukamae ni yuku yo, Donna koto ga okoru no ka wakaranai mirai! Yume o tsukamae ni yuku yo, Minna to nara setsumei wa dekinai kedo daijoubu sa... masshigura!”

A still image of Ruby shows up across the table with an S ranking in every category, enraging Shiitake and causing her to swipe her long arms across the holographic image. “Come now Shiitake, take your loss with some grace why don’t you. My dear sister Ruby is just about flawless in every way, there’s no way you’d be able to outplay her! Isn’t that right, my darling Ruby?” The translator droid makes what can only be assumed as a smile and begins rubbing the top of Ruby’s dome, which elicits happy beeps from the astromech.

“Y’know, it’s not wise to upset a Woofie.” Nico crosses her arms as she down talks the pair of droids, “I pardon sir, no one cares about upsetting droids. We’re not allowed inside of cantinas and you never see us complaining about it.” Nico squints and teases the droids further, “Maybe not, but can droids rip your arms out of your sockets?” Dia looks over to Shiitake again and sees the large beast flexing her muscles and does the droid equivalent of a gulp. “I see your point, perhaps you should let the Woofie win this time, dear Ruby.”

As the pair of droids and rather pleased Woofie continue on with their game, Honoka returns to her training, utilizing her mother’s kingblade to practice deflecting against blasts from a training droid. “Now Honoka, remember that music isn’t something you directly control, rather the music flows all around you, and you draw on it to aid you in battle. Only in self defense I should mention, Jedi are civilized don’t forget.” Riko ponders in her chair, examining Honoka’s movements as she consistently fails to block the lasers being fired at her.

“Arghhhh, this just isn’t fair Riko! I don’t know what the heck any of that means, all I know is that I keep getting shot at and it really doesn’t feel good!” Honoka rubs the side of her stomach and pouts, Nico can’t help but let out a chuckle. “Ha, that’s why I always say, hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for natural talent and a good love blaster at your side, Nico!”

Honoka deactivates the kingblade and gives a shocked look towards Nico, “Huh, you don’t believe in the power of music, Nico?” “It’s not that simple, kid. I’ve gone from galaxy to galaxy, stage to stage, and not once did I ever see anything that would make me think that there’s _one_ single force controlling everything!” Nico says confidently, patting her holster at her side. “Nothing controls my destiny, Nico. I’ve gotten this far in life because of my own hard work and that’s that… and my adoring fans of course!” Nico once again gives her trademark hand gesture and smile, as Riko gets up to grab a helmet hanging behind them.

“Here Honoka, I want you to try again, but this time let go of your physical self and feel only through the music and act on instinct. If Nico wants some solid proof, that’s just what we’ll give her.” Riko plomps the massive helmet down over Honoka’s face, causing her to spin around in place, almost running into the wall. “Riko, I can’t see! You expect me to do better with _this_ thing on my head?” She once again draws out her kingblade, “Your eyes can be deceitful from time to time, don’t always rely on them. Listen to your surroundings this time.”

The training droid spins around in place, once again circling the girl and firing at her hip, this time Honoka raises her blade in time and deflects three shots in a row without flinching. “Yatta! Did you see that Riko?!” She excitedly pulls off the helmet and runs towards her, Nico trying her best to hide her astonished reaction. “Everyone gets lucky every now and then, I’m not impressed.” Nico shrugs off Honoka’s achievement which causes Riko to interject. “In my experience, there really is no such thing as luck. You’re doing great Honoka.” She takes the helmet from her and gives her a pat on the shoulder.

“Being good against a practice droid is one thing, actual living human beings? Something tells me they won’t wait around for Honoka to get her act together.” Nico stands up after checking her nearby navigation display. “We should be heading up on Daring!! now, I’ll go take a look.” Nico heads back to the cockpit with Shiitake following suit, before Riko can join them Honoka excitedly shouts “I could almost see through the visor! Just like you said, once I stopped seeing with just my eyes it all just came to me naturally, it was so cool!” “That’s great Honoka, you’ve just taken your first steps into a larger world.” Riko smiles at Honoka before thinking to herself for a brief moment, she had trained another Jedi before, while she knew it was important for this girl to get the training she needed, a part of her feared what this path could lead to and it filled her with a sense of dread.

Back on board the Dance Stage, Admiral Arvel walks into the meeting room where Darth Yohane and Grand Moff Umi are awaiting to hear the results of a probing mission to Start:Dash!!. “The reports from our scout ships have returned, they found the remains of a rebel base that seems to have been deserted from quite some time. They’re now conducting an extensive search of any neighboring star systems.” He nods and heads back through the metal door, as soon as he does Umi rises up from her chair and pounds at the table, “She lied to us! She lied to me more importantly!”

Yohane faintly chuckles and puts her hands on her hips, sassing the blatantly annoyed Grand Moff. “Heh, I tried to tell you she wouldn’t knowingly sell her friends out. The Princess may be stubborn but she’s far from dumb.” Umi walks straight up to Yohane, not even a foot of distance between the two. “I want her executed, immediately!”

The Millennium Heart warps out of lightspeed, but instead of being greeted by a gorgeous planet, they’re instead pelted by a shower of asteroids. “W-What is this, Nico?! I know I charted our course properly, but I don’t see Daring!! anywhere! Shiitake, pull up our shields!” “Woof woof!” Shiitake obliges and flips a couple of switches above the co-pilot seat. “What’s going on, where is it I can’t see it anywhere?” Honoka tries peering over Nico’s shoulders, “That’s what I’m saying kid, it ain’t here. Unless these bunch of rocks look like a planet to you.” “It must have been destroyed… by the empire.” Riko grimly states, moving up to where Honoka is.

“Come on, that’s impossible! It would take a fleet of a dozen… no a thousand ships to be able to do that! Even the empire doesn’t have firepower like that.” Nico brushes off the possibility and notices a Noppo Fighter entering their field of vision. “Oh great, as if we weren’t already in a bad enough spot already. There aren’t any bases around here, where could it have come from?”

“If that ship manages to identify us, that wouldn’t be good, would it?” Honoka scurries about looking for anything she can do to help, “Woof woof!” Shiitake flips another set of switches on the side panel next to her. “Good thinking Shiitake, we’ll jam their transmissions so even if they did, they won’t be able to get the word out.” Nico praises her co-pilot and pursues the craft in front of them. “Look at him, he’s heading up there towards that small… small… rectangle?”

Honoka questions herself for a bit, a floating rectangle in the middle of space? That doesn’t make a lot of sense. “Don’t worry, Nico! I’ll get to him soon enough.” Nico pushes the Millennium Heart even faster before all of a sudden control is take away from the her as the entire ship starts wobbling in place.

“Uhhhhh, you didn’t tell us your ship doubled as a ride, Nico. I have motion sickness!” Honoka holds onto Riko who’s eyes shoot wide open once she realizes what’s happening. “Hold on… that’s no moon, it’s a space stage.” “You’re kidding, that’s way too big to be a stage, and I should know I’ve seen plenty!” Honoka begins to worry what Riko said is the truth, as her eyes also start to widen. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” She gulps and looks over to Riko who’s begun putting two and two together in her head, Daring!! isn’t here anymore, but this massive stage is? That can’t just be a coincidence. “Maybe you should start turning the ship around, Nico.” “Yeah I’m working on that, Shiitake hurry and lock in the auxiliary power!” Nico desperately starts flipping every switch that she can as they get pulled closer and closer to the large object.

“Woof woof!” “What’s wrong guys, why are we still moving towards it?!” Honoka cries out, noticing their efforts are looking futile at the moment. “I can’t do anything, we’re caught in a tractor beam! Ngh… there’s nothing I can do about it kid, I’m gonna have to shut down.” Nico swivels around in the chair disengaging the Heart’s systems before returning to her seat. “They’re not gonna get me without a fight, Nico.” “We probably won’t fair well in a fight, but there are alternatives to fighting.” Riko tries to instill some confidence in the group even with how dour the situation looks, after a few moments the stage is clearly visible, which causes Nico to suddenly sing a different tune.

“Wow! Sugoi sugoiiiii! Are you seeing the size of those stage spotlights, Shiitake?! Look at how grand that archway is too, boy I’m not easily impressed but imagine what it would be like to dance on this thing!” Her eyes glimmer and she joyfully brings her hands together as if she was in prayer, leaving Riko sighing.

“Jeez Nico… try to keep in mind this is the empire we’re dealing with, right? I don’t think live shows are the only thing this stage is meant for.” The crew is unable to do much of anything as the vessel is gradually pulled into the enormous docking bay. Steps of an army of Stagetroopers echo through the corridor and they all stop outside the Millennium Heart, love blasters on standby.


	7. CHAPTER 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions rise between Darth Yohane and Grand Moff Umi while Princess Maki's rescue attempt by the rebel forces begins.

**CHAPTER 7**

“Yes go ahead.” Grand Moff Umi presses down on a comm link on the meeting room table, “We’ve just captured a heart ship freighter entering the remains of the Daring!! system, the markings on it match those of a ship that blasted its way out of Mos Eisley.” “They must be trying to return those stolen plans to the Princess… you may want to hold off on that execution, Little Demon Umi.” Umi ends the comm link and scoffs at Yohane’s remarks.

“Execution? You think _I_ would execute such a high value military target? Please Yohane-sama what do you take me as, a fool?” Umi cunningly remarks and cups the bottom of Yohane’s mask, before she quickly swipes away her hand and reverts Umi’s expression back to a neutral state. “Quiet! I’ll go investigate for myself.” The slightly annoyed Sith lord flips her cape to the side and storms out of the meeting room down to the docking bay hanger.

“There’s no one on board mam, the log indicates that the crew abandoned ship right after take off.” The officer salutes her superior, but Darth Yohane isn’t quite satisfied, “Hmm… did you also scan for droids? We don’t want to make that mistake twice.” “No sir, it’s possible the crew could have been evacuated via the ship’s escape pods.” Yohane still doesn’t believe no one could be on board, and she certainly wasn’t getting shown up by Umi.

“Send a scanning crew in and check every last square inch of this ship…” She turns to leave but pauses for a moment, a familiar sensation overcoming her. “I sense something… a presence I haven’t felt since…” There’s no way, surely not, Riko Sakurauchi here of all places? Surely that’s impossible, but she can’t shake the feeling off no matter how hard she tries. She leaves the docking bay as a handful of Stagetroopers board the ship.

“There’s no one here!” The Stagetrooper announces as they leave the ship after a somewhat “thorough” search. What they fail to notice is part of the flooring lifting up from underneath them, revealing Honoka, Riko, Nico, and the rest of the group. “That was some fast thinking Nico! You’re really quick on the draw in more ways than one.” She hops up onto the flooring and slides the panel back into place.

“I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be hauling myself as goods… things aren’t looking too hot for us fellas, even if I managed to fly out of here Nico couldn’t get past that strong tractor beam.” “Just leave that to me, why don’t you.” Riko winks at Nico who rolls her eyes in return. “Damn old fool, I knew you’d say that.” “Well who’s more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows her?” “Woof woof!” Shiitake pops her head up from the flooring and receives a gentle pat from Nico.

A few moments later, a few more Stagetroopers head into the ship for a final check and are met by blaster fire, easily incapacitating them and giving Honoka and Nico the perfect disguises the sneak onto the rest of the ship. However this does not go unnoticed by a nearby admiral who calls down to the troopers, “TK-123 why aren’t you at your post? TK-123!” after hearing the shouts Honoka stumbles outside, tapping on the side of her helmet to try and feint a broken communication line.

“Take over real fast, looks like a case of a broken transmitter. Let’s see what I can do.” The admiral turns to raise the door and is met by a tall Woofie who easily smacks the man out of the way into a pile of crates, the other officer is then shot on the spot before he can draw his love blaster. The crew walk in to fill the room and organize themselves.

“Miss, we found the network terminal, if Ruby connects to it we should be able to get a layout of the entire stage.” Dia informs the others as Ruby scoots closer to the computer to interface with it. “Pigi pigi… pigi!” Ruby twists her dome around to look at Riko and Honoka. “Oh that’s perfect, she said she’s found the controls to the beam that’s holding the ship here! Just give her a moment and she’ll pull it up on the monitor.”

The crew look towards the screen as various maps flash across it, indicating seven different locations that the beam is coupled too. “If we can disrupt the signal at one of these coupled locations, the beam should shut down and allow us all to leave.” Riko takes a good look at the map and paces backwards, “What a sorry excuse for a beam, my Riko-chan beam comes from the music inside of me, not some mechanical contraption! Don’t worry girls, I’ll handle this myself.” Nico blows at her bangs and moves aside from Riko, “Knock yourself out, this is already way more than Nico bargained for.” Honoka however is a lot more reluctant to let her go, “Are you sure about this, Riko? I’d like to come with you if I can! I’m sure Nico and Shiitake have it covered here and-“ “Be patient Honoka, you must watch over the droids, I trust you to deliver them to her safely or otherwise other star systems will suffer the same gruesome fate as Daring!!.”

Riko raises the door once more and pauses to look at Honoka, “Your destiny lies on a different path than mine. The music will be with you, always.” Riko embraces Honoka in a tight hug, she would have preferred it had lasted longer but there was no time to lose, the empire would surely be alerted to their position soon enough.

“Woof woof!” “Ha, you said it Shiitake, where did you find that old crinkly flower, kid?” Honoka doesn’t take the insult lightly and pushes herself into Nico’s space. “I didn’t see you coming up with any brilliant ideas, at least she’s taking the initiative!” “Anything’s better than us just sitting around here waiting for them to pick us off!” Before the two can argue any further, Riko beeps in quick succession, turning her dome once again to Honoka.

“Huh? What is it Ruby?” “She just keeps repeating she’s here, over and over again… Princess Maki I believe?” Honoka is beyond pleased to hear this and questions Ruby further, “She’s here?! Where?! We have to go rescue her!” “What do you mean _princess_? No one said anything to me about royalty being involved, what’s going on here?” A confused Nico looks back and forth between the pair of droids and Honoka, unsatisfied at the lack of a response.

“Level 5 detention block, AA-23, it would seem. Oh dear… and she’s currently scheduled to be BUU BUU’d.” “Aww I still don’t know what that means but it can’t be anything good, come on Nico!” Honoka grabs onto Nico’s arm who reflexively pulls it back. “Now look don’t get any funny ideas, I don’t care who this princess is the old lady told us to stay put. Weren’t you keen on listening to her just a minute ago?” Nico lays back in the chair next to the monitor and kicks her legs out, “ _Nico_ is not going anywhere, rescuing princesses wasn’t part of our deal pal.” “Hey, you were the one that also said you didn’t want to wait here for them to come shoot us! They’re gonna kill her, Nico!” “Hmph, well better her than me!” Nico shuts her eyes and spins around in her chair to face away from Honoka. Dia worriedly looks at Ruby, not knowing what to do in this situation.

Honoka however gets an idea of exactly what to do, she’s starting to learn how Nico operates and knows just what to say to her, “She’s rich. Did you know that?” Those few words are all Nico needed to hear to pull her back in, “Rich… you say? How rich are we talking, like doctor rich or billionaire rich?” “She’s rich and powerful… if you were to rescue her, the reward would be higher than you could ever imagine!” “I dunno, Nico can imagine quite a lot! Fine… but I better get it, there’s a memorial set I’ve had my eyes on for a while now, but I haven’t had the cash to burn on it.” Nico jumps out of her seat, newly invigorated. “What’s your plan then, kid?”

“Hmm… hey Dia, can you pass me the cuffs behind you?” Dia obliges and Honoka tosses them over at Nico. “Ohhhh, I see where you’re going with this now… don’t worry Shiitake.” As the two gear up to leave the room, Dia can’t help but wonder where her and Ruby fit into all this. “Excuse me mistress Honoka, but what are Ruby and I to do if we get discovered here?” “Huh… that’s a good question. I know, just shut the door!” Dia isn’t satisfied with the deadpan response, but she didn’t expect any less from Honoka. “And hope they don’t have love blasters on them too, Nico!” Nico strikes her pose and dances out of the room with Honoka and Shiitake, leaving Dia and Ruby in silence.

The group manages to sneak around and board and elevator, which Honoka promptly bonks her head on. “Ow! I can’t see a thing in this helmet.” She pouts inside the rather cumbersome helmet and rubs at her forehead, forgetting for a second that said helmet is blocking her forehead. Elsewhere Riko is doing some stealth of her own, evading Stagetroopers as she nears the location of one of the couples. With Darth Vader gaining increasing awareness of her positioning.

The trio exits the elevator once they reach their destination and step forward after slightly adjusting the cuffs around Shiitake. “Where exactly are you taking that… thing?” An officer asks with a patrol of troopers behind her. “Oh this thing? It’s a prisoner transfer, uhhh… from Cell Block 1138.” Honoka says earning a disgruntled sigh from Nico. “I wasn’t aware of this… you’ll have to wait for me to clear it with the warden.” Two nearby officers step forward, blasters aimed at Shiitake who lunges forward and flings one of them into the ceiling.

“Look out, she’s loose!” Nico tosses Shiitake a love blaster and the trio begin firing in all directions, landing hits on the officers and destroying all the cameras in the vicinity. “We need to hurry and grab this princess of yours before we get a lot more company…” Nico slides over to where the officer was seated and scans through the database. “There it is, 2187, go get her kid! I’ll hold them off until you get back.” She takes off her helmet and tosses it to the side, taking a moment to untangle her hair and retie it into proper pigtails. “I’m so glad to have that thing off, Nico’s looks being hidden from the world under this gaudy thing should be a crime!”

After Honoka heads towards the detention block, a call comes through from dispatch. “What the heck is happening up there?” “Oh you mean up _here_? Nothing really, we just had a slight weapon malfunction that’s all haha~” The voice on the other end isn’t convinced by this, “Yeah I think we’re gonna send a squad up.” “Erm, ahhh… say it with me now! Nico Nico Nii!” Nico pulls her hands up to her head and cheerful repeats the words again. “Nico Nico Nii~ Anata no Heart ni Nico Nico Nii~ Egao todokeru Yazawa Nico Nico~ Nico Nii te oboete Love Nico!” The voice seems to be amused by this along with the other people listening in who erupt into applause. “Wow that was fantastic, you’ve got a really great voice… now what’s your operating number?” Nico’s smile cracks as she rushes to pick up her love blaster, “Certainly, my number is… suck on this!” She fires a stream of shots into the dashboard, with smoke pouring out of the sides. “Uhhhh you may want to hurry up there, Honoka!” Nico shouts into the long hallway as Honoka picks up the pace.

“Oh I’m no good with math… which cellblock did Dia say she was in? ABC-123? No no it was DD-223… it’s no use! Waaaah!” Honoka drops her blaster and holds the side of her helmet, shaking her head from side to side. “Saa! Daisuki da banzai! Makenai yuuki watashitachi wa ima o tanoshimou. Daisuki da banzai! Ganbareru kara kinou ni te o futte hora mae muite.”

Honoka’s ears twitch a little as she picks up on the words being sung, “Who is that singing…? It sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before.” Honoka starts checking the various cells littering the chamber, but after a while she realizes that won’t get her anywhere. “No no… I’ve gotta listen to what Riko said! Listen to the music and feel it, my eyes are deceiving me.” She stands in place and focuses harder, almost instantly she envisions a stream of musical notes flying past her, emanating from one direction. “I got it! Don’t worry Princess Maki, I’m coming!”

“Ah… singing just isn’t the same without having my piano here with me to compose, I guess it can’t be helped.” Maki sprawls out on her makeshift bed, currently bored out of her mind. That doesn’t last very long though as her cell door shoots open and a figure walks inside. “Huh, would you look at that. Aren’t you a little short for a Stagetrooper?” Maki sasses laying her arm over her hips.

“Huh? I mean compared to my dad I’m not really that tall I guess, but… oh you mean this uniform!” Honoka bashfully pulls off the helmet and walks forward. “Was that you singing? That wasn’t like any song I’ve heard before, what planet is it from?!” Maki sits up from her bed, a little confused about why this Stagetrooper is conversing with her like this, but even more confused about how she heard her singing. “Wait, you heard me? How is that possible… I was singing yeah but nothing louder than a whisper, who exactly are you?” Maki squints as Honoka takes a few seconds to remember why she’s here.

“Oh jeez I’m sorry, I’m Honoka Kosaka! I’m here to rescue you, I’ve got your droid and Riko Sakurauchi with me too!” Upon hearing that name Maki springs up from her bed and runs over to Honoka. “You said Riko Sakurauchi?! Where is she?!” “Come on, I’ll take you to her! Or at least try to, she’s in the middle of trying to shutdown this tractor beam so we can escape, and I don’t really know where exactly she _is_ right now and-“ Maki grabs Honoka by the arm and pulls them out of the cell.

“She is here.” Darth Yohane says nonchalantly causing a bit of confusion in Grand Moff Umi, “Riko Sakurauchi? What makes you think so?” “There’s a tremor in the music, I noticed it as soon as that ship was brought onboard. The last time I felt it, was in the presence of my old master…” Yohane looks down, clearly pained by the realization. “Surely she must be dead by now then, the Jedi are long extinct. Their one-sided view of the universe has been wiped out by our hands, you my friend are all that’s left of their religion.” Umi paces over to the other end of the table to answer an incoming transmission.

“We have an emergency alert in detention block AA-23, something about malfunctioning weapons and oddly catchy singing?” “The princess…? Put all sections on alert!” Umi growls and looks back to Yohane. “See I told you! Riko Sakurauchi is here, and the music is guiding her! My faithful little demons will draw her out for me.” “Yes… if you’re right she must not be allowed to escape, under any circumstances!” Umi was beginning to doubt herself, first she was lied to by an arrogant spoiled child, and now a relic of the past is supposedly onboard _her_ Dance Stage when the end of the rebellion was in sight? No no no, not on her watch. “Escape is not her plan, I must face her alone.”

Yohane turns to leave but that doesn’t stop Umi from shouting out at her, “Don’t fail Yohane-sama, I fear what the empress will think once she finds out that the Jedi _you_ failed to kill is still alive and threatening this battle station.” Yohane stops for a moment, she didn’t fail to kill anyone, she _chose_ to keep Riko alive, perhaps against her better judgement.


	8. CHAPTER 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Princess Maki meets Honoka and Nico for the first time, Riko Sakurauchi and Darth Yohane have one final confrontation.

**CHAPTER 8**

Honoka and Maki don’t make it very far from the cell before they’re greeted by Nico and Shiitake running towards them, evading a hail of blaster fire. “Nico doesn’t think we can get out that way.” She fires a few shoots down the cell bay and pouts, “It looks like Nico-chan managed to cut off our only escape route, nice going.” Nico whips her head around and glares at Maki, “Oh, maybe you’d prefer it in your nice dark, lonely cell, your highness.” A shot landing right above them breaks up the feud as they split apart to find cover.

Honoka grabs a communicator from the Stagetrooper uniform and calls to Dia, “D-3KO, D-3KO! Are there any other ways we can get out of here? The cell bay’s been cut off!”

“Unfortunately, it looks as if all systems have been alerted to your presence, mistress. The main entrance there appears to be your only means of escape… all other information Ruby could access is restricted.” Dia worriedly paces back and forth and another voice pierces through the door behind her. “Open up in there!”

“Well, the good news is Dia and Ruby are okay! The bad news is, that’s still the only exit out of here, haha…” The blasting continues with both sides shooting across the cell bay, “That’s just great, I can’t hold all these guys off forever, my idol charm doesn’t work on them!” “This is someeeee rescue, when you all decided to come here none of you thought maybe it would be important to have a way out?” Maki taunts Nico who’s only getting angrier with every passing second. “She’s the brains of this operation, sweetheart! Oh no… no wonder we’re screwed.” Maki pulls the love blaster away from Honoka and fires next to where Nico is standing.

“Hey watch it princess! Nico might not be the brightest all the time but I at least know how to shoot!” “Nani sore…Imi wakannai! If you two are just gonna stand there playing stupid, someone has to save our asses!” Maki runs across the bay, firing off a few good shots towards the Stagetroopers on the other side and stops next to the hole that formed next to Nico. “Into the garbage chute, flygirl! Or… flyboy? Is there a female version of that term? Imi waka-“ “Alright alright I get it! I’m getting in, but not because you asked me to.” Nico signals over to Shiitake who covers Maki as she dives in, then follows suit shortly thereafter.

“Wow she’s a wonderful girl, ain’t she?” Nico sarcastically remarks, the firefight showing no signs of slowing down. “You think so too? Man who would have guess she’s a princess, she certainly doesn’t act like one!” “I didn’t mean… aye, give me a break.” Nico shakes her head and waves over to Honoka, “Hurry up and get in here, we don’t have much time left!” Honoka dives headfirst into the hole followed by Nico.

Immediately the group is hit by a putrid odor amidst all the junk they’ve landed on. “Ewww, it’s gonna take weeks for Nico to shower this smell off of her, what a _wonderful_ idea princess, if only I thought to jump into a literal heap of garbage.” Nico kicks at a piece of trash and scans around the room, “Get away from there Shiitake, I’m getting us out of this stinkfest.” “No wait Nico!” Honoka’s warning comes a little too late and the blaster shot slingshots across the room causing the group to duck for cover before it eventually strikes a piece of debris in the corner.

“I already tried doing it earlier, the door is sealed really tight!” “Can you put that thing away before you get all of us killed?!” Nico throws her arms up almost letting go of her blaster. “So now everyone is gonna yell at Nico, huh? Remind me who blasted a hole in the cell bay again? Nico had everything under control until _you_ decided to come down here!”

“Well it could be worse…” Maki tries climbing up on a pile of debris but as soon as she lifts her leg up a large roaring is heard underneath them. “There’s something alive in hereeeeee!” Honoka instantly starts freaking out and runs over to where Nico is standing who shoos her away towards Maki instead. “With all the junk in here it wouldn’t surprise me if something _was_ alive under all this trash.” Nico paces around still trying to find a way out until Honoka notices a large tentacle shifting through the murky water. “There Nico, did you see that?!” The group goes silent as said tentacle quietly wraps around Honoka’s leg before dragging her down beneath the garbage infested water.

“Kid!” “Honoka?!” Nico and Maki both shout at her and pillage through the trash, trying to locate where she could have gone. “Wooooooof!” Shiitake cries out in vein before Honoka suddenly emerges soaking wet and trying to pull the creature off from her neck. “Blast it! My dumb gun is jammed!” Maki attempts to help Honoka by reaching a large pole out to her, Nico complies with Honoka’s wishes and starts shooting wildly at the water, hoping one of her shots will land. The creature cries out in pain and drags Honoka down under for a second time.

After a few seconds of silence, Honoka once again shoots back up from the water, gagging and gasping for air. “What happened?!” Maki cries out as she attempts to slog through the water to get to where she’s standing. “I don’t know! It just let go of me all of a sudden and swam off!” Nico helps Honoka to her feet and the group circles in each other, Shiitake attempts to pry the door open in the background. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Nico…”

The walls of the chamber loudly creak and groan to life as they push forward and encroach upon the group. “Don’t just stand there guys, try bracing it with something!” Maki grabs the pole she held out for Honoka and pushes it along the side of the wall with Honoka and Nico doing the same. “Hang on a second, I still have that communicator!” Honoka takes her hands off the pole and radios Dia for help. “Come in Dia! We urgently need your help!”

Back where Dia and Ruby are waiting, a squad of Stagetroopers come in to discover the pair hiding out in the elevator, “Such heathens, they ran through here to get to the upper level, if you go now you just may be able to catch them!” “Understood, let’s go men!” The ploy seems to work and the Stagetroopers pull away, heading in the opposite direction. Dia grabs the communicator and leaves the room with Ruby by her side.

“Try getting on top!” “I can’t!” Maki starts excessively panicking as Nico hoists her up to the top of the trash heap, Honoka continues attempting to page Dia who doesn’t hear the call coming through. “No no no, Nico can’t go out like this! What will my adoring fans think happened to me? The number one idol in the universe is gonna die among the trash?! Say it ain’t so!” Nico fakes a feint and Maki pushes her back over. “Get over yourself drama queen and start using some of that small muscle to keep these walls open!” “Hey say anything you want about me, but don’t ever call me small!” Even in a life or death situation, it seems these two just can’t stop arguing with each other.

Ruby attempts to connect to a terminal and beeps to Dia, “Turn on the comm link? Oh my, I completely forgot all about this thing! Mistress Honoka? Are you there?” Hearing Dia’s voice gives Honoka a small amount of hope, “Dia?! I need you to listen to me, shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level, pretty please? Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level before we get crushed like pancakes!” Honoka kicks up her legs towards the wall, the space between the group and the wall shrinking by the second.

“Shut them all down, hurry hurry!” Dia waves her hands at Ruby who rotates the circular mechanism in front of her, bringing the crusher walls to a halt. The group erupts into cheers and hugs, which Dia mistakes for screaming. “Listen to them Ruby! I’ve gotten my mistress and her compatriots killed; I’ve brought dishonor to the Kurosawa name.” If droids could weep, she probably would be weeping right now, but luckily for her the moment doesn’t last for too long.

“We’re OK Dia, you and Ruby did great! Hey, could you open up the maintenance door while you’re at it too?” Honoka gives a thumbs up to the others as they stumble over towards the door. It took Riko longer than she would care to admit, but she finally arrives at one of the couplings holding the tractor beam together. She begins the process of disarming it while taking cover from passing Stagetroopers above her.

“If we can avoid anymore _royal_ advice, we just might make it out of here in one piece.” Nico finishes removing the rest of her Stagetrooper armor and tosses it back into the garbage room they just escaped from. “Look, I don’t know who you are or where you came from Nico-chan, but from now on you listen to what _I_ tell you. Sounds good?” Maki gives the fakest of smiles and walks off without the rest of the group. Nico runs up ahead to keep pace with her and pounds her fist to her chest, “Listen here your tomatoness, let’s get one thing straight right now. Nico takes orders from one person, me! And what’s with the -chan bit?” “It’s a wonder you’ve managed to survive this long, and could one of you please get this overgrown poodle out of my way?” Shiitake growls in retaliation but Honoka holds her back.

They manage to navigate the hallways of the stage and get to a viewing platform overlooking the Millennium Heart, “Ah there she is, my pride and joy!” Nico holds her face up to the glass and traces a heart over it with her finger. “That’s the ship you came here in? Why am I not surprised?” Honoka would rather avoid listening to these two fuss again and calls up Dia to let them know where they are, “Are you guys safe? We’re just above the hanger bay!” “What a coincidence, that’s where we are as well on the ground level.” Dia looks over her shoulder at the patrolling Stagetroopers carrying heavy artillery. “Hang on just a bit longer, we’ll be right there!”

Riko finishes disabling the coupling and advances through the stage, intending to make her way back to the hanger to join the others, but before she steps into the main hanger bay, she senses an increasingly large amount of troops gathering at this spot. “They won’t be able to make it like this, I need to buy them some more time…” Riko freezes in place and gathers herself, letting a song flow through her lips. “Yume no tobira, zutto sagashi tsuzuketa. Kimi to boku to no tsunagari o sagashiteta…” Riko smiles to herself as a flurry of notes gather around her, drawing in the attention of the Stagetroopers who managed to hear the alluring singing save for a few stragglers.

“Close the blast doors!” A squadron of troops catch sight of the group and fire in their direction, Honoka and the others run full speed ahead and narrowly avoid the door closing in on them. “Open the blast doors, open the blast doors!” Loud banging is heard on the opposite side of the door as Nico shoots the panel next to them, “That door won’t hold them forever kid, we’ve gotta get going.” “Yeah I know, but…” Honoka looks up at the ceiling, Riko probably wouldn’t want them to wait for her, but with her being the closest thing to a mother figure in her life now, she really didn’t want to lose her if she didn’t have to.

Unfortunately, the Stagetroopers weren’t the only ones that were enchanted by Riko’s singing, while Riko runs towards the hanger bay with only a single wall separating her and freedom, Darth Yohane steps forward with her red kingblade in hand. “All those years of waiting, my heart in constant turmoil… I knew you were alive, Lily.” Upon hearing that once precious name called out to her, Riko ignites her own sakura pink kingblade and steps forward to meet Yohane.

“You knew I was alive, but never bothered to come visit me once, some spouse you are.” Riko knew it was foolish to try and have some idle chitchat with her Yohane after she was so long gone, but she knew her time on this plane of existence was short, she might as well make the best of it. “I am not your spouse! You’re confusing me with that weakling, I’m a datenshi, Lily. The strongest in the galaxy, I am no longer a learner as I once was, I am the master!” She raises her kingblade within striking distance of Riko. “Only a master of evil, Darth.” Just like that the two clash their kingblades, the sound of which rings throughout the stage, vibrating off the walls and illuminating the room the two are in.

“You’re fragile…” Their voices resonate as they time the clash of their swings with their singing, the pain in their voices coming through in song. “Kimi wa itsumo osoreteru hohoemi nagara, Kirawaretakunai kimochi sore mo wakaru yo!” Yohane slashes down at Riko, slicing off part of Riko’s robe and narrowly avoiding her leg. “Mou yamete watashi dake ni sotto kokoro o misenasai! Nakisouna me no kimi ga suki yo, Muboubi ni ikiru bukiyousa mo ne!” Riko twists her body to avoid another slash from Yohane and lands a hit on Yohane’s shoulder guard, causing her to stumble back a bit as she recovers. The two circle around each other, Riko trying her best to not let her guard down for a second no matter how much her heart is wanting her to.

“Kowareyasuki hakanai omoi kowasanaide! Watashi ga zutto kimi o mamoru yo dakishimeru yo!” Riko and Yohane sing in unison, a flurry of notes swarming and clashing between both of them, almost as if they’re being propelled by the powerful emotions they both feel. “Kowareyasuki!” Yohane takes another swing at Riko, slamming into her glowstick and sending her cascading into the wall behind them. Riko recollects herself and steadies her blade, her hair dropping over her eye covering the tears streaming down her cheek. “Kowaremono yo!” Riko uses the rest of her energy to dash forward at Yohane’s chest, who just barely manages to deflect the blow at the last second, knocking the glowstick out of both of their hands.

Riko and Yohane may be some of the best fighters their respective sides have to offer, but they’re both getting up there in age, and as much as Yohane would refuse to say so, she doesn’t want to fight Riko like this, that is until her next words send her spiraling into a fit of rage. “Yohane… our daughter is alive.” “W-What did you just say, Lily…?” They’re both panting heavily, Riko uses the music to gradually draw her glowstick back to her, but she doesn’t ignite it quite yet opposed to Yohane, who seemingly looks ready to go on the offensive again.

“You heard what I said, search your feelings you know it to be true… she’s on this space stage with us as we speak.” Riko gives Yohane a look of empathy, but Yohane can’t decide what the hell is going on, Riko isn’t the type to lie just to get the upper hand, but why wouldn’t she say something sooner? “I-I don’t understand my little demon… the princess, she… I thought she may have took after you but. I could have killed her! Umi could have killed her! So you’d rather the blood be on my hands? Is that it?” Yohane seemingly regained all her strength, this did not go the way Riko was hoping. “No that’s not it! I had to make sure, I had to make sure she was safe… and she had a good life, a good family! All I wanted was for that to work for us too, Yohane!” Riko’s resolve is slowly breaking and the waterworks are flowing now, but regardless she follows suit and ignites her kingblade once more, holding it upright to defend from an incoming strike. “Urusai! I’ve had it with all the lies, I’ve finally gained the little demon following I’ve always wanted, I finally have someone who sees my potential now! You’re a little too late, Lily.” She once again strikes forward and clashes with Riko, the two sabers striking up against one another with Riko peering past Yohane’s helmet, trying to view into her very soul.

“No… I’m not too late, I know there’s still good in you Yohane. I knew it from the day we met!” She smiles, she doesn’t know if it’s out of fear, or if she truly believes the words she’s saying. Out of the corner of her eye she can see Honoka and the others running out behind some storage crates in the hanger bay. The girl that was to be their only hope wasn’t her, it was Honoka, her daughter. She had to entrust the future of the galaxy and the fight to save Yohane to her now. “Your powers are weak old lady, this won’t be like what happened on my Unstable World.” “You can’t win Darth, strike me down and I’ll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Just then the door that was currently blocking the two lifts revealing themselves to the rest of the stage, once the Stagetroopers surrounding the ship notice they head off in that direction.

“There’s our ticket out of here, I just hope she was able to get the tractor beam down in time.” Nico gives the all clear to the others to sprint out towards the ship once the Stagetroopers are out of sight. “Come on Ruby, we’re going.” Dia moves to join the others as fast as her robotic legs can take her, shortly followed by Ruby after she disconnects from the terminal. “Wait a sec… is that Lily over there?” Honoka stops in front of the large gaping room where the two are dueling, fear washing over her face.

Riko gives one last look to Honoka and smirks, even if it wasn’t for as long as she would have liked, she got to spend some time with her daughter and pass on her teachings to the next generation of Jedi. Riko raises her glowstick for the last time steadily in front of her and braces for what’s to come next. “Farewell… my little demon Lily.” With one final swing of her glowstick through Riko’s shoulder, she vanishes; leaving only her robes and glowstick in a pile on the ground. “No!” Honoka desperately screams out and starts firing in Yohane’s direction.

Yohane isn’t in the right state of mind to notice the oncoming blaster fire as she kicks around at Riko’s robes. “How is this possible?! Where did you go, Lily?!” Her mind races at a mile a minute, this wasn’t a technique she had ever seen before, she hadn’t caught up with Lily in quite a while but turning invisible was not something Yohane knew how to do. Plus she confirmed her suspicions were correct, Princess Maki was her daughter, it explained her fascination with piano playing and her unbelievable strength in the music, but how was that physically possible? Her and Lily had loved each other deeply, but enough to produce a kid? That just didn’t make sense… and why hadn’t the empress told her about this sooner? All she knew right now was Lily was gone at last, it was a bittersweet moment but she didn’t have the time to mourn, there were still intruders aboard.

“Honoka it’s too late, we’ve got to go!” “Blast the door, kid!” Nico and Maki yell out to Honoka who hasn’t stopped firing since Lily faded from existence, taking Nico’s advice she fires at a panel near the door that begins closing the room yet again. Once that happens, Yohane snaps back into the present and turns around, “Wait, what’s going on out there?! Little demons get that ship and rebels under control!” Before she has time to issue more commands the door slams shut right in her face, knocking her backwards.

“Run Honoka, run!” A voice echoes through Honoka’s head as she reluctantly heads up the ramp back onto the Heart. Nico is already settled in the cockpit and straps her headset on. “I hope that old lady got the tractor beam out of commission, or all that work back there will have been for nothing. Hit it, Nico!” Nico signals Shiitake who engages the Heart’s systems and pulls the ship out from the hanger, after some tension the ship appears to be in the clear as it flies away from the Dance Stage.


	9. CHAPTER 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honoka reunites with her close friend and ace pilot, Kotori Minami, and returns the stolen plans to the rebellion so they can prepare for their final attack on the Dance Stage.

**CHAPTER 9**

Before the Millennium Heart can make much headway, they’re approached by sentry ships scanning the area. “Oh great, angle the deflector shields while I go down and fire up our main guns, would ya?” Nico pats Shiitake on the back and exits the cockpit, meanwhile back in the lounge area Honoka is slumped over at the School Idol Festival table where Maki joins up with her, gently laying a blanket over her shoulder.

“I can’t believe she’s gone… I felt like I was just starting to know her.” Honoka sadly slides her finger across the table, not paying too much attention to the company surrounding her. “There wasn’t anything you could have done, Riko did her part and gave us the opportunity to escape and destroy that stage for good.” Maki rubs over Honoka’s back as Nico runs down to meet the group.

“You doing okay kid? Sorry to kill the mood but we’re not out of this just yet, I could use your help up here! Bring that music machine with you too.” Nico doubles back and climbs up a ladder to the upper guns, Honoka and Ruby chasing after her. “You need my help with what exactly, Nico? I though you said you were the best pilot in the galaxy and didn’t need my help?” “I’m not talking about helping out with the flying, Nico needs you to take care of our friends out here!” Nico attaches her headset to a panel in front of the gunner seat and straps in.

“Blasting their ship certainly doesn’t sound like a nice way to treat your friends, but whatever I guess…” Honoka takes the ladder down instead and takes the same actions as Nico. “What did you need R2K2 for?” “My ship’s weapons are special, they fire in sync with whatever music, usually my _amazing_ discography, I have playing! That makes it so much easier for Shiitake and I to destroy any unwanted company quickly.” Ruby connects to an outlet on the ship near the location of the guns and after a few moments, begins playing a somewhat familiar orchestral track that catches Nico by surprise.

“Instrumental music, huh? Not what I would have expected, but Nico can handle any challenge!” Maki runs back to the cockpit where Shiitake is as a small group of Noppo Fighters fly over the ship almost if on cue. “Here they come!” The panel in front of Honoka and Nico changes to a targeting display, with a series of 9 circles overlaying an image from outside the ship, shortly after several notes begin flying towards the circle in time with the music Ruby is playing. The seats rock back in forth inside the small cockpits, each blast from the gun corresponding with a correctly timed note over one of the 9 circles.

The Noppo Fighters fire upon the ship as it remains stationary with the fwooshing of the engines overpowering the music in some instances, but it isn’t enough to distract Nico who manages to score a full combo and knocks one of the Fighters into oblivion. “Ha, as I would have expected any less from the perfect idol Nico.” Her premature gloating is cut short by the destruction of another ship, this time by Honoka. “Wow, I got him I got him! I’ve never really played School Idol Festival before, but if it’s anything like this I wanna start playing right away!” Honoka gives herself a mini cheer but Nico chalks it up to being luck once again, “Yeah that’s great and all kid, but don’t get cocky!”

Maki yells back towards them, “Come on guys, there’s still two more of them out there don’t lose focus!” Maki can barely finish her sentence as one shot manages to penetrate the shields, dealing a small blow to the interior of the ship that ignites, Ruby notices this and rotates her dome around to put the small fire out with a built in fire extinguisher. Honoka and Nico manage to each take out of one the last few remaining Noppo Fighters and take their headsets off in relief. “We did it guys!” Honoka gives a full on cheer this time and her infectious energy causes the same reaction out of Maki who hugs Shiitake seated next to her. The dogfighting was just the thing to distract Honoka for a while, though that isn’t too difficult to accomplish, and the group separate for a while on their way to the true rebel base, Susume→Tomorrow.

Darth Yohane and Grand Moff Umi are once again reconvening in the meeting room following the group’s somewhat easy escape attempt, “They’ve just made the jump to hyperspace according to our tracking.” “You’re sure that the homing beacon is securely attached and actually tracking them _properly_?” Umi folds her arms and shakes her head. “You really don’t have any faith in me, do you little demon?! I think my army is more than competent enough to place a homing beacon on a trash ship like that!” Yohane pushes her helmeted face up against Umi, she’s feeling a lot more empowered after killing Riko after all these years, at least she thinks she’s dead, she hasn’t quite figured out what the whole “no body being left” thing is about.

Umi stares her back, not letting her guard be lowered for a second. “You don’t impose me at all Yohane-sama, but I’m taking an awful risk on this. We had the plans in our position with that blasted droid _you_ allowed to escape, if the rebels manage to get a hold of it and actually dissect the intel…” Umi is still fully confident in their chances, once they locate the rebel base it’ll be obliterated before they can even get a single ship off the ground, even so… she is not the type to gamble, especially with stakes that are as high as this.

“Not a bad job, wouldn’t you say, Nico?” Nico slides into the co-pilot seats and takes off her gloves, flinging them over her shoulder. “Sometimes I impress even myself, which doesn’t sound possible but Nico manages to do it anyway~” She smirks and looks over at Maki, they got so caught up trying to flee the Dance Stage that Nico didn’t have the time to really admire the princess’s looks up until now, but since things have calmed down finally… wow, she really is a catch! Nico finds herself just staring at Maki’s purple eyes for a few minutes, blissfully unaware at all the yelling the redhead is doing.

“They let us go, that’s the only explanation for how easy that was!” “Easy? You call that easy?!” Nico gets riled up at Maki clearly brushing off her talent as a pilot, and she was just admiring her good looks too! “They’re tracking us.” “Not this ship, sister!” Nico looks around the cockpit as if to second guess herself, before quickly whipping back around to not give Maki any satisfaction. “At least the information is still safe with Ruby…” “What’s so important about it? What’s she carrying on her?” Maki wraps her finger in a tuff of her hair and rolls her eyes, “A layout of that stage we were just on, what else? I just hope that after we analyze the data we’ll find some kind of weakness for it…”

Nico reclines the seat and stretches out in it, trying to shift the conversation away to anything other than the rebellion for once. “So how’d a girl like you end up leading this whole thing? I doubt you were just born into politics.” “Actually I was… both of my parents were members of the galactic senate, I would have been studying law after I learned to walk if they had their way.” Maki chuckles a bit after her remark, but then loses that bit of joy after she realizes her parents aren’t there any longer. Nico realizes this a bit too late and tries steering the conversation away once again, “Righttttttt, but that’s not the only thing you’re good at, is it? I heard you singing from your cell while Honoka was trying to find you, and that wasn’t the voice of an amateur I heard.”

Maki is surprised to hear this, first Honoka could hear her singing and now Nico? Who was at least 10 feet or so away from her? Just who are these people that have rescued her? “I take it that you know a thing about singing yourself if this ship is anything to go by, how did you end up getting involved in a cause like this, Nico-chan?” “Me? Look, I’m only in this for the money, now that the old lady is gone, I’m expecting your rebellion to pay up the 17,000 loveca I was promised.” Just like that any bit of admiration Maki had for Nico was lost, she really was the type to care about no one else but herself.

“If money is all that you love, then what’s what you’ll receive.” Maki abruptly gets out of her seat and heads back towards the cabins, brushing past Honoka on her way out. “Nico-chan here is quite the mercenary, I wonder if she has posters of herself on this ship.” “Hey you better not start snooping around anywhere, Princess!” Nico tries yelling back at her but she’s already far gone. “Those posters are all limited edition… and no I won’t sign them! Well… maybe for a few loveca.” Nico snickers to herself while Honoka takes the seat that was formally occupied by Maki.

“Sooooo, what do you think of her? The twin buns look is kinda an odd choice, but I’ve never left Sunny Day Song so who am I to talk about fashion?” Honoka examines the various buttons lining the cockpit’s interior. “Nico is trying not to, kid. Still… she’s certainly got a lot of spirit, and some mesmerizing eyes to boot!” Honoka tilts her head ever so slightly, “Eyes are used for seeing things, I don’t really think much about them other than that. But that’s great that you like something about her, Nico!” Nico sighs at the girl’s clear lack of awareness, but that makes it the perfect opportunity to divulge her feelings a little.

“What do you think, a princess like her and an idol like me…?” Nico points at herself, expecting a response from Honoka. “Oh, sorry! What do you mean? Like can you guys be friends? I try to be friendly towards everyone and I haven’t met a single person yet who I can’t get along with, so there should be hope for you too, Nico!” Honoka gives Nico her own little pose in return. “Uh… you know what, just forget it kid but uh, thanks.” The Millennium Heart finally approaches Susume→Tomorrow and lands near a massive structure located on the planet and are greeted by soldiers of the rebel alliance.

The group are brought into the main rebel base on a cart of sorts and Maki reunites with Commander Mao Kahriv, an important figure in the rebellion that was instrumental in obtaining the plans. “It’s so good to see that you’re safe! When we heard the news about what happened to Daring!! all of us were extremely worried.” “Now is not the time to mourn, commander. The plans are stored here on this R2K2 unit, we must extract them immediately, I fear the ship I was brought here on may have been tracked.” Maki heads towards the central meeting room with both droids and the others following behind her, before they get to the room however, a high pitched voice calls out to them.

“D-3KO, R2K2, over hereeeeeee!” A rather small girl about Honoka’s height with silver hair and a hair loop jumps up and down waving her arms, attracting their attention. “My, it’s Mistress Kotori! Come Ruby, we’ve already embarrassed ourselves enough.” Dia walks ahead as fast as her robotic legs can carry her but yet somehow Ruby is still faster than her, and Kotori leans in to hug the small astromech. “You guys, I wish you had told me what you had been planning, when I heard that you both had went missing, I feared the worst!” She rubs her face up against Ruby and smiles while Dia watches, “If I had a choice we would have returned straight to the base, my dear sister here had other ideas in mind I’m afraid.” Kotori looks up at Dia and gives her a hug as well, out of the corner of her vision she notices a familiar face.

“No way, that can’t be… Honoka-chan?!” Kotori’s eyes begin to water and she dashes forward, unknowingly knocking Dia over onto Ruby. “Ehhhhh, Kotori? This is where you’ve been?” Honoka can’t even process what’s happening before Kotori leaps into her arms, looking for a second as if she was flying off of the ground. “Honoka-chan! I missed you, I missed you, I missed you!” “Ehehe, I missed you too Kotori.” Honoka smiles back warmly and embraces her friend tightly as Kotori’s tears drip town onto her face; the two had grown up together on Sunny Day Song, but once Kotori was of age, she joined the flight academy and that eventually led to her joining the rebellion because of the position her mom holds in the movement.

“Looks like you’ve been taking care of yourself, I’m loving the uniform too!” “You like it? I’m glad I was able to put my sewing talents to use even all the way out here.” Kotori holds the vest of her orange and grey uniform and spins around, putting on a little show for Honoka. “It definitely wasn’t lost on me, maybe you can hook me up with one, I’ve been wearing my bread and sweet shop rags ever since I got started on this crazy adventure… and boy, my tummy is beyond hungry.”

Honoka’s face reeks of exhaustion and she rubs over her stomach, “Oh gosh, come with me right away Honoka-chan! I should have time to get you a quick snack before the meeting, and you can catch me up on everything that’s happened so far, does that sound like a fair trade?” She smiles and playfully sticks her tongue out; the mention of food is all Honoka needs to revive herself. “Of course that sounds fair, let’s eat!” Honoka runs off with Kotori, completely forgetting Nico and Shiitake exist in the process.

A call comes through the comm link and Grand Moff Umi answers it rather quickly, impatiently awaiting the results of their tracking efforts. “We’re approaching the planet Susume→Tomorrow, it appears that the rebel base is located on the nearby moon orbiting it.” “Very good, see to it that we arrive there as soon as possible!” Umi ends the communication channel and looks to Darth Yohane, “Well, even a broken clock is right twice a day, Yohane-sama. I’ll give you credit where it is due.” Umi walks forward to take a look out at the planet with her own eyes, another devilish grin forming on her face.

Back on the rebel base, Ruby has a slot of her surface plugged into to connect with a larger display screen, projecting the schematics of the Dance Stage onto it. Another unfamiliar walks into in the center of the room, cloaked in a long white dress with brunette hair, most of the soldiers in the room sit in dead silence before Commander Kahriv steps forward, “Um, mam, you can begin the briefing.” “O-Oh, is that so? My apologies, everyone.” She bows and nervously sweats, drawing the attention of Honoka and Kotori. “Wait a second, that’s not… Hanayo Koizumi is it?!” “It is, I’m afraid…” Kotori nervously laughs as Hanayo continues at her attempt at a speech.

“G-Good evening, I’m Hanayo Umi… no that’s not right, Koizumi! Filling in for Director Minami today as our strategist, t-thank you for your patience.” A voice amongst the sea of soldiers yells out, “Get on with it already!” “O-Of course!” The frightened girl picks up the pace and continues with the debriefing, “Thanks to the plans on this R2K2 unit that were given to us curtesy of Princess Maki Nishikino, we were able to analyze the schematics of the weapon the Empire is calling the Dance Stage. The stage itself is heavily armored and contains firepower unlike anything we’ve seen before… according to our spies, the empire intends on using this stage to hold Love Live! competitions as well as punishing any planets that refuse to obey the one song per planet order that was set in motion some time ago…” 

Hanayo continues with her speech and Honoka and Kotori chatter in the background, “How the heck did a shy girl like Hanayo end up getting the position of leader in the rebellion?!” “I don’t know too much about it myself, all I know is that she really seems to have an obsession with idols and their history, and like everyone else here she sees the empire as a threat to our freedom in more ways than just music…” Kotori leans forward, intently listening to her speech. “I guess since your mom’s not here she’s having to break this all down for us instead, she’s doing her best at least, go Hanayo!” Honoka shouts out, drawing a number of eyes towards her and eliciting a shy wave from Hanayo who goes back to speaking. 

“If the schematics are to be believed, one of our fighters should be able to get through the stage’s defenses to the sole weakness of the station. You’ll be required to fly through a rather long trench to locate the exhaust port, the area of which is only six feet wide in length.” This information draws a few skeptical looks from the crowd, including Nico. “The shaft of the exhaust port leads directly to the core of the stage, a direct hit if landed will trigger a chain reaction, instantly destroying it!” Hanayo takes a breather and takes a step forward, “Man your ships, and may the music be with you… but before that, I want everyone to look under their seats!”

“What the… wait, this is a rice ball!” Honoka holds up a packaged rice ball and looks over at Hanayo who is smiling gleefully and busy eating a rice ball of her own. “Mmnn that’s right, I couldn’t just send all of you out there without a filling, delicious, treat of rice, now could I?” She holds her hands to her cheeks and finishes devouring the rice ball before pulling another one out from her gown. “She has even more?!” Honoka looks on in shock as Kotori begins eating her share, nibbling on it so quickly it almost looks like she’s pecking.

“Orbiting the planet at maximum velocity, the rebel base on the far moon will be within range in T-Minus 30 minutes.” The voice over the comm link announces, Darth Yohane stands forward next to Grand Moff Umi and triumphantly poses, “This will be a day long remembered in my datenshi legend, it has seen the end of Sakurauchi and it will soon see the end of this unholy rebellion!” Umi exchanges a nervous glance with Yohane, even though she’s tried to convince herself that everything will work out in the end, she can’t shake off the fear that allowing the rebels to obtain the plans for the Dance Stage will be the end of them, but she’ll be damned if she ever lets Yohane-sama see a weakness in her.

Honoka, who has now switched into the uniform she was gawking at earlier, catches up to Nico who’s busy loading up her cache of loveca onto her ship with the help of Shiitake. “Oh, I see how it is, you’ve got that reward of yours so you figure now is the perfect time to bail?” Honoka holds her helmet at her side and frowns at Nico. “I thought we were friends, Nico!” “Kid, this has nothing to do with being _friends_ alright. Nico just so happens to be in a not so small amount of debt, I’ve gotta save my own ass here before I think about helping anyone else out!” She pouts and hands over another cache container to Shiitake. “Woof woof!” “Don’t you be trying to guilt trip me now too, you’re the whole reason we found out about this job in the first place! Why don’t you come with us then, Honoka? You seem to know how to hold your own in a fight, and Nico can always use some backup dancers to make herself look better.”

“Yeah I think I’m good here, but thanks-“ Honoka waves off the offer and turns to head for her ship, but stops after a few steps “We could really use a good pilot like you, if this stage stays around it’s dangerous for everyone…” “A reward isn’t any good to a dead man y’know, attacking a giant stage like that doesn’t seem like the smartest decision, and Nico only takes winning bets.” Honoka sees that she can’t get through to Nico, but hey she tried her best and that’s all that she can do so she goes to board her ship once again. “Hey, Honoka?” Nico quietly calls out, secretly hoping she won’t hear but that doesn’t seem to be the case. “Huh?”

“May the music be with you, Nico!” She strikes her pose one last time and gives Honoka an honest smile. “You never really explained what that pose is all about.” Honoka sighs and squints her eyes. “Well… you guys have to get a move on and it’s a long story, if we catch up again remind me to explain it to you then!” Honoka once again walks past an array of ships looking for her own but is stopped once more by Maki this time. “Honoka? Is everything okay with you?” “Oh yeah I’m fine, I thought Nico would hang around to help us out a bit, but it seems like she was in a rush to spend that loveca…” Maki shakes her head, attempting to keep Honoka focused on the task at hand.

“Nico-chan has to follow her own path, no one can decide that for her. Just like we have to follow ours, right?” Maki gives Honoka a quick hug and then parts from her, joining up with Commander Kahriv to finish preparations. Honoka finally arrives to her ship as Ruby is being lowered down into the back of it, being attached into place by a couple of technicians who ask Honoka, “This astromech seems a little beat up at the moment, you sure you wouldn’t like us to grab you another one?” “No way! That little music machine and I have been through a lot together the past couple of days, I wouldn’t trade her for anything, not even an entire loaf of bread!” Honoka gives Ruby a thumbs up but somehow Ruby doesn’t take that as a compliment. “Pigi…”

Kotori runs by Honoka’s ship right before she gets on board, putting her hands on her knees to catch her breath. “I’m really not used to running… I almost feel out of shape- Honoka-channnnnn, good luck out there okay?! I’ll be right behind you!” She smiles and bangs on the side of the ship, “All our Chicken Wing fighters are specially designed by my mom and her administration, they’re just about the safest ship to fight in as you can get!” “Thanks so much Kotori, I believe it! Oh and the uniform fits like a dream by the way, I’m surprised you were able to fit it to me on such a tight schedule.” Kotori bites her lip as she flutters a little in place to try and get a better look at Honoka, “Oh Honoka-chan… you just look dashing with it on, I thought going full on orange would clash with the uniform in all sorts of places, but you pulled it off so well!” “Ehehe, what did I tell you Kotori, I knew I’d make it in some day!” Honoka smiles as she puts her helmet on, despite the circumstances that led her to this point, her life was finally getting exciting! That came with its own share of downsides, namely losing a lot of people you care about, but it also reunited her with old friends and new faces alike, and now she finally had a chance to prove to the galaxy that she was more than just a girl that knew how to make bread; she was going to be an idol, a jedi.

Right before her ship prepares for takeoff, Dia quickly walks over to signal Honoka. “Mistress Honoka! I beg that you will keep my dear sister safe, if anything were to happen to her I’d…” Dia looks over towards Ruby who just beeps back to her. “Pigi, pigiiiiii!” “Yes I know Ruby, you don’t want to let the fact that you’re a droid change what you’re capable of, oh my little sister is a hero of the galaxy.” Just like that Dia’s mood shifts instantly as she coos over how wonderful her robotic sister is, Honoka has her helmet too tightly strapped to her head and misses the discussion between the two droids entirely.

“Honoka, may the music be with you.” She definitely didn’t miss that, where is this voice coming from? First she heard it when they were fleeing the Dance Stage, and now again here… it was looking increasingly likely that she was losing her mind or developing some sort of PTSD, but she didn’t have the time to question it further, the Chicken Wings were pulling out from the atmosphere, led by Kotori in her own custom fighter. 


	10. CHAPTER 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the attack on the Dance Stage is at hand and the galaxy rejoices. Honoka and her friends look on towards the future, for Honoka that future is Muse.

**CHAPTER 10**

Deep in the vastness of space, the squadron of chicken fighters begin their approach towards the Dance Stage. Kotori gets on the intercom to radio the pilots, “All wings, report in to me!” “Orange 1 standing by.” “Yellow 5 standing by.” “Blue 4 standing by.” The calls continue until all the fighters are properly accounted for. “We’re passing through the magnetic field of the stage now, accelerate to attack speed! This is it, boys.” The Chicken Wings increase speed and plow into the gravitational pull of the stage, circling around the perimeter to where the exhaust port should be located.

Kotori leans forward in her cockpit, gripping on tightly to her control stick as the stage’s defense turrets come into view. She does her best to keep her nerves from getting to her, she focuses intently on Honoka in her mind and believes that the two of them will get through this battle together, for now she needed to encourage her team. “This is Grey Leader, I haven’t really had the chance to give a heroic hurrah before but… we can do it everyone, just believe! Chun-Chun mother fuc-!” The comm link erupts into static from all the cheers, easily covering up any last words Kotori was trying to get out, maybe for the better.

“Blue Leader here, I’m preparing my attack run now!” On that announcement a trio of Chicken Wings spread their mechanical wings revealing a number of large cannons underneath them, the speeds of the ships greatly increase as they enter combat with the turrets along the floor of the stage itself. “This is Orange 1, I’m going in too!” Honoka dives her fighter forward and begins firing at the stage, causing mini explosions throughout it but she skirts a little too close to the floor for comfort. “Honoka-chan, pull up!” Kotori quickly calls out and Honoka immediately follows the order, a plume of smoke darting past her ship. “T-Thanks for that Kotori, I’m alright now.”

“We count 30 rebel fighters, Yohane-sama! But their small size is making it difficult for our laser cannons to hit them.” “Well of course they can’t hit them when they’re flapping their wings all over the place, this requires careful precision from my personally trained little demons, send the fighters out at once!” Darth Yohane signals to Admiral Oldrak who immediately dashes off through the corridors in a panic. “I’m preparing my attack run, someone cover me!” “I’m right behind you, Green 8.” A pair of Chicken Wings fly over to where the trench is located and dive in and are immediately greeted with laser fire from a set of turrets, “No wait, get out of there!” The warning is too late as one of the shots connects with the wing of Yellow 5, crippling the bird shaped ship and knocking it into one of the panels of the Dance Stage creating a massive explosion that kills some of the Stagetroopers inside.

“Squad leaders heads up, we’ve detected a new wave of signals heading your way, they appear to be from enemy fighters. No telling how many of them there are so stay cautious.” A rebel commanders voice radios in to the fighters, as if things weren’t bad enough already they had a new swarm of Noppo Fighters to worry about. “Huh? I don’t see anything, I can only turn my head 90 degrees with this helmet on but I’m sure we’re fine!” Honoka optimistically shouts out before the communication line is interrupted with an urgent message, “Nastazja, you’ve got one on your tail, watch out!” “I’m hit” The voice cries out before being silenced, a Noppo Fighter flying through the dust and debris looking for another fresh target.

“They’re trying to pick us off! Maybe they aren’t wearing helmets, so it gives them an advantage when it comes to finding us… that’s dangerous y’know, the Empire is so totally not safe!” Honoka kicks the floor of her fighter and circles the bird craft around, trying to locate any stragglers that could use assistance. “They’re too fast for me, I can’t shake them!” “I’ll be right there, Pink 9!” Honoka lines up behind the Noppo Fighter and centers it on her targeting computer, she quickly fires off a barrage of missiles from the Chicken Wing’s… wings, and all the shots connect to destroy the threat.

“I raised you little demons to be better than this, what a disgrace!” Darth Yohane stomps the ground and meets up with two imperial pilots. “A few of those fighters have broken off from the main attack squadron, come my elite little demons, let’s show them how it’s really done, shall we?” One of the pilots removes their helmets, revealing Arvel underneath it. “With pleasure, Yohane-sama.” They quickly rush to the stage’s docking bay where Yohane’s personal fighter is kept, it takes the shape of her imp helmet with the deep black wings of the ship taking after those of a fallen angel, fitting.

“Guyssssss, I think this fighter wants to try some of my bread! I’m sorry but we don’t sell burnt bread!” Honoka pulls around on her joystick, trying every maneuver she can think of but it just isn’t enough to shake the small fighter. “Kotori, where are youuuuuu?!” “Honoka-chan! I’m on the way, just hang on a little longer okay?!” Kotori’s slightly larger Chicken Wing swoops down behind the aggressive fighter, but this time the beak of the ship opens up to reveal a laser hidden inside, “Bread is a snack for birds only, and Honoka-chan’s bread is all mine!” Kotori pushes her thumb down on her joystick and a single grey laser blast slices through the shaft of the fighter, dislocating the wing and causing it to spiral down into one of the archways of the stage, which in turn crumbles to pieces and collapses.

“Wowwwww Kotori, look at you!” Honoka does her best to turn around in her small cockpit and give Kotori a thumbs up, but she’s too busy enjoying the small but still significant compliment she had received. “Aww it was nothing, I made that weapon modification to the ship myself, after this is all over I can show you how if you’d like~” Kotori faintly blushes and forgets she’s in the middle of a battle for half a second. “Grey Leader these are the Popcorn Chicken bombers, we’re making our attempt at the trench run now, any backup would be greatly appreciated.” Three round ships zoom down into the trench yet again, but at the same time Darth Yohane and her pair of elite fighters launch from the docking bay and zoom in to their position. “Stay in attack formation and whatever you do, do not break from it! I’m counting on you to make sure no harm comes to me, Arvel.” “On my life I will not allow even a scuff of paint to befall your craft.” All three fighters drastically pick up speed and meet the bombers in no time.

“Switching to targeting computer.” The lead bombing ship announces as a panel on the side flips open, revealing a mechanism of sorts that allows for more precise firing, critical if any of the fighters are to land a decisive shot down the reactor shaft. “The cannons, they’ve stopped firing?” One of the bombers ask as the pathway to the shaft narrows more and more by the second, “Three signals at 2’O clock, put those shields up!” The leader bomber calls out, Darth Yohane is busy preparing the music in her small fighter and locks onto the ships, “This is what we’re up against, really? I’ll take these three myself guys, I won’t even need my music for this.” She locks onto each individual bomber and fires a stream of black dagger like feathers from her ship that cut into the small ships, destroying each of them almost instantly.

Back in the meeting room, Grand Moff Umi is watching the battle play out in the large window in front of her, she heads towards the edge of it and looks out as one of the fighter’s, Honoka’s blurs past it; giving Umi just enough time to glance at the girl piloting it. “Was that the girl that abducted the princess? On board a fighter? Impossible.” Umi scoffs at the idea and keeps her eyes focused on every aspect of the battle, they’ve at last drawn the rebels out of hiding and _this_ was the best effort they had to offer? She expected it to be easy, but they’re such pushovers this might as well be criminal, if it wasn’t already.

Admiral Oldrak walks into the room, stepping forward to deliver an update to Umi, “Mam if I may, we’ve finished analyzing the attack patterns of this rebel squadron and… perhaps it would be wise of us to prepare your ship for standby.” Umi becomes enraged and whips around to grab the admiral by his collar, using her strength to lift him off the ground by a few inches. “Are you asking me to evacuate? In our… in _my_ moment of triumph?! I think you fail to realize just how much time, how much blood and sweat I’ve poured into this very stage you are standing on! This is our moment of triumph; you very much overestimate their chances!” Umi unhands him and he drops to the floor, quickly gathering himself and scurrying out of the room. “This arrogant redhead and her little rebellion ends today, no longer will anyone question my capabilities, I am the greatest military mind the galaxy has ever seen!” She looks ahead to a timer located on the wall, indicating the rebel base will be in firing position within 3 minutes.

“Blue Leader, we’re right above you guys! Center up at the trench and we’ll cover you, don’t worry!” Honoka calls out, pulling back her ship to head towards blue leader, as soon as Honoka gets her message out, Darth Yohane readies her fighter again and blasts towards the lone fighter, crippling the ship. “No don’t! I just lost my starboard engine, get set up for your attack run, it’s up to you n-“ Yohane fires another volley of feathers towards the fighter and knocks it down towards a portion of the trench, causing more internal damage to the stage. “You’re kidding?! It’s really up to just us now?” Honoka leans forward into her console in disbelief, she thought maybe she’d knock a couple of ships out and help save the day, but she wasn’t betting on being the _only_ hope left for the galaxy.

“Kotori, let’s pair up, okay? We’re gonna go in full throttle with everything we’ve got, fight until the end!” “Hmm!” Kotori nods in agreement and flies her ship over to Honoka as the two dive into the trench one last time. “I’ll stay back far enough to cover you, but that shot is all on you Honoka-chan, please make it!” Kotori pulls back to wings of her ship and retreats to a safe distance behind Honoka before destroying a couple of turrets with her missile barrage. “Ruby? There’s a flashing red light on my screen and I don’t know what that means, can you take care of that pretty please?” Honoka sighs and turns her head back as much as she can as lasers barely skim past the sides of her ship. “Pigi…?” If Ruby had a functioning brain, she would question how Honoka knows so little about her own ship, but she obliges and extends a metallic arm to repair a loose stabilizer.

“Fighters coming in at .3, I’ll try and buy you some more time, Honoka!” “Wait, Kotori!” Honoka cries out but Kotori has already turned her ship around, facing the trio of elite fighters. “My my, this one has some fight in her.” Darth Yohane inputs a command and the music system in her fighter cranks up, playing her signature song “In This Unstable World.” “Kono taikutsu sekai wo wataru ni wa! Chikara o awasenakya dame yo!” Yohane signs out and the music carries outside of her ship into Kotori’s, aggressively attacking her mind.

“N-Ngh, what is this…singing?” Kotori tightly grips her head with one hand and struggles to keep her eyes open, however she pushes through the pain and manages to fire a laser shot from the beak that connects with the elite fighter on the right, destroying it. “Honoka-chan… I’m sorry, but this music is too much for me, I’ve gotta pull back!” Kotori regretfully pulls up on the control stick and flies away from the trench, leaving two fighters remaining.

“That’s okay Kotori! I’ll manage... somehow.” Honoka is quickly losing faith in her mission, Kotori is one hell of a pilot, but now that she’s out of the picture, would she really be able to make it all the way? “Ignore her, stay on the leader!” Yohane calls out, the two fighters quickly closing the gap between them and Honoka. “Ruby, try to increase our power! We’ve only got seconds to work with here.” A voice over the stage’s intercom booms, “30 seconds remaining until we make contact with the rebel base.” “Good… I never had any reason to worry.” Grand Moff Umi holds her arms down at her side, drawing on her invisible bow. Archery was an activity she quite favored back on her home planet of Shunjou Romantic, oh how she wished to visit it again… after the rebellion had been destroyed she intended on taking a very long vacation, possibly even retirement; afterwards she would once again pick up her beloved bow an maybe indulge in a bit of that singing that Yohane-sama quite enjoyed. “Hirahira to yumemitetai dokidoki no yume…”

After noticing the Dance Stage is in rage of their base, Hanayo drops to the floor and holds her hands over her head, “D…D-Dareka tasukete!!!!” she cries out as she shakes her head and begins to shed tears. Princess Maki quickly rushes over to her and picks her up by her arms. “Get ahold of yourself, Hanayo! Have faith in Honoka and our republic… maybe our republic more than Honoka-“ Maki sighs and stands over the command table and holds her hands in prayer, Maki wasn’t deeply religious, but she strongly believed destiny played a part in everything, so whatever happened now was beyond their control.

Honoka activates the side panel and once again the targeting instrument deploys in front of her face, frustrated she smacks the thing to the side, “Awww, this is no good! I don’t know how to read this thing!” Honoka can feel her heart racing, not only was it likely she was going to die here, but what about Maki that she went through all that trouble to save? How would Riko feel if she knew her death had no purpose? “Use the music, Honoka… Let go, Honoka!” The voice calls out to Honoka, but this time it’s crystal clear, that’s Riko talking to her! “The music is strong with this one…” Darth Yohane is able to sense a strength growing within this pilot in front of her, she once again continues singing her song, she can’t take any risks.

“Dakedo ima wa gaman shiyou ka shifuku no toki sa unstable world!” The music once more flows out from her ship and strikes Honoka, jolting her backwards into her seat. “Ah! It’s so loud, I can’t even think straight!” Honoka clamps her eyes shut and shakes her head back and forth. “Trust me, Honoka! Block it out, use your own light to fight her!” Riko does her best to pull Honoka back in, and those words resonate with her. “My own light…?” Honoka takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, “Honoka are you okay? You’ve disengaged your targeting computer!” Commander Kahriv questions through the comm link, that’s just background noise to Honoka now who is searching within herself for the weapon to fight Yohane with.

“Aishiteru banzai! Koko de yokatta watashitachi no ima ga koko ni aru…” Suddenly a rush of energy bursts out from Honoka and flows back from her outside of the ship, colliding with the stream of notes being sent by Yohane. “N-Ngh?! What… is… this?” Yohane tries countering by intensifying her own singing but the strength is too much for her as she slowly loses control of herself. “Aishiteru banzai! Hajimatta bakari ashita mo yoroshiku ne mada gooru janai!” Honoka pushes through another verse that slams Yohane’s music right back into her, almost rendering her unconscious. “Shut up with the singing alreadyyyyyy!” Yohane frantically fires at the ship, but her feathers miss from the inaccuracy of the shot, only just managing to clip Ruby’s dome.

“Pigiiiii!” Ruby’s head spins around in place as a small fire comes out of her doom, Ruby’s screams are enough to pull Honoka back into reality. “Huh?! The singing has stopped, I only hear Ruby’s screaming now! Thank you, Riko!” “You dummy, don’t forget about blowing up the Dance Stage!” Riko’s annoyed tone can be felt as if she was right there sitting next to her, “Ehehe, don’t worry I know.” Honoka closes her eyes yet again trying to focus in on bringing the shot through the reactor shaft, but Yohane still isn’t finished. She pulls herself up from her seat and takes aim yet again.

“Rebel base is now in range.” Those words cause Umi to look up in relief, she spreads her legs apart and turns her hips, pulling back her arm to draw on her love arrow with all her inner strength. “Love arrow…!” “I have you now… you foolish little demon!” Yohane prepares to take her shot before an explosion is her next to her, “Ahhhhhh!” Arvel cries out in pain as her ship is obliterated in seconds. “Nani?!” Darth Yohane looks all around her as her ship gets sent flying out of the trench from the impact of the explosion, a giant love shaped ship flies overhead.

“Love Nico! You’re in the clear, kid! Can you blow this shoddy stage up already so we can get home?” Nico cheerly shouts out before she flies past Honoka and out of harm’s way. “Nico…” Honoka smiles and readies her hands on the joystick, pushing down on her firing button and sending two torpedo missiles straight down into the opening of the reactor shaft, both shots hit their mark and a chain of explosions radiate through the entire stage. Honoka, Kotori, Nico, and the surviving fighters just barely manage to clear the explosion range.

Grand Moff Umi feels the rumblings around her, in that brief moment she understands that her time has come to an end, prematurely? Perhaps, but her pride would never have allowed her to retreat, she knew that no matter what happened, she would stand her ground. Umi knew who it was that brought about their demise however, it was that orange haired girl that she saw piloting that crudely designed ship. There was no doubt about it in her mind, her final thoughts were that the empire’s greatest threat had just been unleashed upon them, Honoka Kosaka.

“Great shot kid! That was one in a million, though if Nico had been piloting it would have been about one in a hundred.” Nico jokes to herself but Shiitake jabs Nico in the shoulder, not taking the joke lightly. Honoka laughs, happy that Nico did the right thing and returned to help them win the fight. She takes off her helmet and looks up towards the stars, hearing Riko’s voice again. “Remember Honoka, the music will be with you, as well as me, always.” “Huh? What do you mean you’ll be with me always? I want some privacy!” Honoka would have to ponder what all of this meant once they got back to the base.

Within seconds the stage collapses in on itself and implodes, the rippling effect can be felt by the fleeing pilots and even those on neighboring planets, if anyone had been able to sneak a glimpse at the explosion, it certainly would have been a sight to see. Almost equally as loud was the cheering between the pilots over the communication link, Honoka was gonna have a lot of hugs and high-fives to look forward to when they got back to Susume→Tomorrow.

Back on the base, Honoka hops out of her Chicken Wing and is greeted by roaring applause and a somewhat fazed Princess Maki who instantly hugs her. “Honoka you did it! All of us here are so proud of you.” Maki smiles then gets startled by a voice behind her, “No one is more proud of her than I am, I knew you had it in you, Honoka-chan!” Kotori let’s the waterworks flow and hugs Honoka tight around her arm, whimpering a bit. “Aww Kotori… you had nothing to worry about, I’ve had tons of practice back home! Besides, I was only able to blow the stage up because you were my _wing-_ man! Huhhhh?” Honoka laughs at her own awful joke but Kotori eats it up and laughs along with her, Nico overhears the excitement and runs down towards the rest of the group.

“I knew there was more to you than just the money, Nico-chan!” Maki leaps forward past Honoka and Kotori and mimics Kotori’s hug, catching Nico by surprised. “O-Oh well, I mean I still really love spending loveca, but what good is money if there’s nowhere in the galaxy to spend it? Besides, no stage in the galaxy is big enough to hold Nico’s idol talent, m-maybe you’d like to watch me perform sometime, Maki?” Nico blushes hard secretly hoping Maki hadn’t heard that part, but oh she did. “I may have to take you up on that offer, it’ll be fun to just be Maki for once and not a princess.” She smiles and kisses Nico on the cheek, instantly covering her entire face with that blush.

“ASJZKXKCMVBX-“ “Wow Nico, you’re starting to sound like a droid! Oh wait, Ruby was hurt!” Honoka looks back as a pair of technicians pull an injured Ruby from the ship and lower her to the ground where Dia is waiting. “Ruby! My dear sister! Can you hear me?!” Dia frantically holds onto Ruby, rubbing over the blast marks that cover her metallic body. “Mistress Honoka… I told you that if anything were to happen to my sister, I’d have your-!” Dia brings her fist up about as far as she can before Ruby happily beeps about.

“Oh Ruby! You can repair her, can’t you?! I want the finest mechanics in the star system working on her, maybe you can give her a refreshed paint job, or maybe even extended pigtails! Ruby we’re long past due for a makeover you know.” “Pigi…” The droids happy beeps appear to change tones as the technicians wheel her away with Dia following along.

A few days later, a reward ceremony is held on Susume→Tomorrow, a massive auditorium is built within the former base where hundreds of significant rebellion leaders and members have gathered to honor the heroes of this daring mission and rescue, among those being rewarded medals are Honoka, Kotori, Nico, and Shiitake. The group walks down the long pathway towards the stage at the end, where Hanayo Koizumi, Princess Maki, and Commander Kahriv are waiting to congratulate the heroes. Hanayo backs away from the stage after giving a speech congratulating the young rebellion and hands a couple of gold medallions over to Maki who steps forward and lays the medal around each of their heads, starting with Nico who gives a wink in her direction which Maki smirks at.

“Woof woof!” Shiitake barks out as she holds her medal with pride, “Pigiiiii!” Ruby emerges with Dia onto the stage, both fresh with new coats of armor and brand new parts that should last for quite a while.Once they’ve all received their medals, they turn to face the crowd in front of them and are met with applause for their valiant efforts.

Honoka is the first to speak out once the applause has stopped, she’s done some “soul searching” the past couple of days about this rebellion and her new goal in life. “Getting these medals is great and all but… I feel like we should do something more, you think?” Honoka turns her head to Kotori who gives her a confused look. “Something more…?” Kotori leans her head out more and looks at Nico who just lifts her hands up and shrugs. “Don’t look at me, I have no idea what the kid is talking about.” Honoka runs forward and looks up at the light pouring in from the ceiling, “You know what I mean, let’s sing! This rebellion is all about giving everyone the chance to freely express themselves, through music too!” “I think I know what she’s getting at…” Kotori eagerly jumps forward and smiles at Honoka, they both turn and look towards the petite girl, “Nico?!” “Ay… it doesn’t look like I have much of a choice, I’ll show you two how a real idol spreads her love!” Nico reaches her hand back and unholsters her own custom-made microphone and smiles once she sees Honoka and Kotori with some of their own. The lights around the stage slowly dim before shining down on each of them with their individual colors.

“Let's go! Do! I do! I live! Yes, Do! I do! I live! Let's go, Let's go! Hi!!” The three pump their arms in the air and run around the stage, the crowd while confused at first, slowly gets into the rhythm of the song as music notes pour off of the stage and dissipate. “Let's go kawannai sekai janai, Do! I do! I live! (Hi hi hi!) Let's go kanousei aru kagiri, Madamada akiramenai (Hi hi hi!) Let's go shizen na egao nara, Do! I do! I live! (Hi hi hi!) Let's go kanousei miete kita, Genki ni kagayakeru, bokura no basho ga aru!” Honoka, Kotori, and Nico strike consecutive poses and throw their mics up into the air, twirl around in place, and then grab the mics before their last verse. “Let's go! Do! I do! I live! Yes, Do! I do! I live! Let's go, Let's go! Hi!!”

The trio exhale in the air around them and try to cover their exhaustion, that seems to work out well for them as their performance is met by cheers, with Maki clapping subduedly on the side of the stage. “Ha, that was nothing, call me when you guys have some _actually_ challenging songs to dance to.” Nico smirks and returns the mic to her holster before signaling over to Shiitake she’s ready to leave. “Awww, come on Nico! You know we could use your help here, I would have been well done toast if you hadn’t shown up when you did! And your singing is incredible, I can’t believe _you_ don’t believe in music with skill like that!” Honoka pouts, doing her best to convince Nico not to leave again.

“Yeah it’s just that, skill, I didn’t become this flawless overnight. Nico takes effort to be this good!” She strikes her pose but this time it isn’t effective on the group. “Listen Nico… I’ve had time to really take in everything that’s happened to me lately, what happened with Grondorn Muse, with Lily… I don’t want their deaths to have been for nothing.” Honoka looks down at her feet and a concerned Kotori walks over to comfort her. “Honoka-chan…” “So, I want to carry on their legacy for both of them, I’ll get better at singing and learning the ways of the music, I’ll be an idol, I’ll be a Jedi! I want to form my own idol group that’ll stand up to the empire, faito dayo!” Honoka pumps her arms up as she’s getting more and more enthusiastic. “We’ll sing wherever and whenever we want, that’s how we’ll win… with Muse!” Honoka yells out loud to a mostly empty auditorium and sticks her arm out, Kotori smiles and follows suit, sticking her hand out next to Honoka. “Come on Nico, I know you want to!” Nico however is already almost halfway out the building with her arms folded behind her neck.

“Pass, I don’t know if you noticed but, Nico does her best work solo. Have fun with that idol group project of yours though, maybe it’ll make for some good competition for once.” Nico doesn’t look back and exits the auditorium with Shiitake. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that…” Honoka sighs with her arm still extended, she next turns her attention towards Maki. “Heyyyy, what about you, Maki! I heard you sing back on the Dance Stage, you seem really invested in this whole rebellion thing, don’t you wanna join Muse?!” Maki hesitates but replies back, “Sorry, I think I’ll have to pass too… Nico-chan shouldn’t have turned you guys down so harshly, but running a rebellion is a lot of work, I barely have time as is to practice my piano.” She bites her lip and runs her finger through her hair again, doing her best to avoid eye contact with the two.

“The concept sounds very intriguing… and I do have quite the fascination for idols, maybe I’d be interested in joining a little later, but I need to clear things away with Director Minami first.” Hanayo shyly steps forward and says to the hopeful girls. “Aww… that’s alright, I was hoping to have more than just one other person in my idol group, but hey everyone has to start somewhere, right?!” “That’s right, from zero to one you could say… or two!” Honoka tries to keep up her infectious optimism and is happy Kotori at least indulges in it. Even though it may not appear so right now, she had a feeling deep inside her that Muse and the rebellion were far from over, things were just getting started.

**WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY**

**MAMA MIKAN**

**CASTING**

**MAMA MIKAN/MAO THE REFRAIN**

**STARRING**

**HONOKA KOSAKA, NICO YAZAWA, MAKI NISHIKINO**

**UMI SONODA AND RIKO SAKURAUCHI**

**WITH DIA KUROSAWA, RUBY KUROSAWA, SHIITAKE**

**YOHANE TSUSHIMA, KOTORI MINAMI, HANAYO KOIZUMI**

**MUSIC BY**

**LANTIS/JOHN WILLIAMS**

**SPECIAL THANKS**

**NIN AND SEBA**

**ALL RIGHTS TO THE STORY, CHARACTERS, AND SONGS FEATURED IN THIS FIC BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE COPYRIGHT OWNERS. LOVE LIVE! IS THE PROPERTY OF LANTIS/SUNRISE/BUSHIROAD/DENGEKIG’S. STAR WARS IS THE PROPERTY OF LUCASFILM LTD. AND THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ADDITIONAL CREDITS:  
> uwu_tbh for Nastazja Karliva, 
> 
> Plazorr for Arvel/Oldrak Ergradon,
> 
> and MaoTheRefrain for Mao Kahriv.
> 
> Special thanks to the Love Live community for writing so many amazing fics with these characters that inspired me to do one myself, thanks to Star Wars for being my favorite thing ever, if this was any other AU I would have stopped long before now. Thanks to NicoMaki and YohaRiko for being two amazing ships that make me very happy, I would shove them into everything if I could. Lastly thanks to Mao who helped me come up with this insane idea in the first place, Nin for rewatching the films with me to get me in even more of a Star Wars mood, and Seba for consistently spamming me with wholesome ~~and angsty~~ fics that convinced me to churn this sucker out. Look forward to the sequel coming… EVENTUALLY.


End file.
